The Life, Love and Lies of Clint Barton Or the making of Hawkeye
by Hawkeyeisbae
Summary: Of all the Avengers (except perhaps Natasha) Clint has the most colorful background. What lead him to SHIELD? How did Coulson convince him to join? (Because we all know it was Coulson) What kind of trouble did he get into? How did he meet Natasha? Finally here is a full account of Clint Barton's adventures.
1. Chapter 1

"You don't have to do that." Clint couldn't hear the words, but he read them on the strange man's lips. He'd never met the man, and he'd appeared out of nowhere while he was in the middle of hot wiring a jeep that he planned to steel from a slum lord that was staying in a crummy hotel. The moment the man had touched his shoulder Clint's bow had been in his hand's drawn and ready to be fired, his sights set on the man's heart. Oddly enough the man wasn't referring to shooting him though, he was motioning to the car.

"I've got to get to Michigan somehow, don't I?" Clint offers up, too shocked to say anything else.

"I suppose so." The man says, while pulling out a set of keys. "But I thought these might help." He tosses Clint the keys.

"Who are you?" Clint demands, letting the keys land in the drivers seat of the jeep.

"Just a man who knows a little more about you then you'd probably like, Clinton Francis Barton."

"How do you know that name." Clint had abandoned his bow, he's now holding a knife to the man's throat, his bow safely strapped to his back. He had moved so quickly however, that the man is caught off guard. This makes if possible for Clint to force him up against the hood of the car.

"My name is Phil Coulson." The man says as if they had just met a local Starbucks. "I work for a top secret government agency that specializes in security."

"So they sent a suit to take me out." Barton says expecting nothing less. He's made a lot of enemies in his short twelve years. "I guess they don't know that much about me, because if they did they would have sent a team."

"We know more then you'd think." The man motions to a red light that has appeared on Clint's throat. "He'll make that shot if you don't let me up." Not wanting to see if the man is bluffing, Clint allows him up, but his bow returns ready to be drawn at a moments notice if needed.

"You're wrong, they've sent me to try to convince you to join us."

Clint only snorts. "Yeah right, the only reason you haven't had your men shoot me yet is because you know I can shoot faster."

"True, but what I say is also true. The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division believes that you could be of use to us."

Clint doesn't understand over half of what the man says but he understands enough to believe the man. "What kind of use?"

"We believe that with your background you'd be the perfect agent."

"Do you I have an option?" Clint asks eyeing the sniper who believes himself to be hidden, knowing that if he doesn't like the answer, he can get himself out of the situation.

"He's over two hundred yards away." Phil says knowing who Barton sees. "Yet, you can see him as if he was next to you. It's a remarkable gift."

Clint snorts at the flattery but presses the issue. "You didn't answer my question."

"You do, either you accept and come with me, or I let you leave. If you leave, SHIELD will track you down once again with every intention of disposing of you, and while you may evade us for awhile, eventually we will find you. You've made a lot of enemies, it wouldn't be hard to convince them to help us find you. I'm not saying that you'd die anytime soon, but eventually, if not by our hand you'd die by another. And that is a guarantee, as we won't stop until you are dead. On the other hand, if you leave with me, you'll have a chance at a real life. You're young, we'll send you to school if you like, or homeschool you. You'll get a paycheck, living quarters, food, and my personal guarantee that all those enemies you've made won't be able to find you. All you have to do is say yes."

Clint looks at the car, where the keys are still sitting in the drivers seat, then at Phil. He didn't get all the words the man said but he got the intention, his option were to go with the man and have a cozier life, or run like a fox on a fox hunt only to eventually get cornered.

"Where are we going?" Clint asks, strapping his bow to his back.

"I thought you'd see things my way." Phil says climbing into the Jeep he motions for Clint to get in as well. The moment the boy is in, Phil takes off like his in NASCAR. Clint holds on, his face going green which makes the other man laugh.


	2. Chapter 2

"He's twelve?" Nick Fury wasn't a man to often be surprised, but he'd soon learn that when Barton was involved there was always a reason to be surprised.

"Yes, sir." Phil says, watching the boy through the one way glass. Upon arriving at SHIELD's headquarters in DC, Barton had been removed from his car and sent to medical for a physical and psychiatric evaluation to make sure it would be safe to deploy him as an agent. Since then Phil had been watching over his care from their current location, observing Barton as well as doing paperwork about his search and his findings. So far, Barton had only had one incident. Moments after being placed in the room, a nurse had come in and tried to remove his bow and quiver from the room. The result had not been pretty, Phil had had to send in five agents to sedate the boy. He'd then made the executive decision that the boy stayed with an arrowless quiver. The arrows that were supposed to be in the quiver are currently at his side, they'll be returned as soon as Barton is released from medical. Which is looking promising, all his tests had come back in a positive light. For all intents and purposes the boy was healthy, now the only thing keeping him in medical was the lack of Nick Fury's signature to release him.

"How does a twelve year old have over four hundred kills all around the world under his belt?" Nick asks Phil shaking his head.

"Lack of supervision?" Phil offers up, not knowing the full answer himself. He'd been working on the Barton case for a year now, and while he pretended to know more while in Barton's presence, he honestly didn't know much past the boy's name and birthday.

"I'd say so." Nick ignores Phil's sarcasm. "He seems stable though." Nick consults the doctor's extensive medical report. "What's he like?"

"What do you mean sir?"

"I mean, you spent twenty hours with the boy in a car. What's he like?"

"Sarcastic, when he speaks. Which he doesn't do much of. He doesn't seem to follow conversations all that well."

Fury flips to the mental evaluation section of the boy's file. "The doctor says he's perfectly articulate for a child his age and displays all signs of normal development." He flips through the charts again. "The medical team says he's hard of hearing but don't say how much. I want that checked out before he release him. I don't want to have an agent not able to follow orders because he can't hear them."

"Of course sir." Coulson pages the doctor Fury's instructions. "Will you be releasing him?" If Barton's not cleared for agency work, he'll be placed in an adoptive home with an agent to control him. Coulson had already lined one up in case things don't work out.

"As soon as his hearing's tested." Fury signs the paper. "Have him settle in, then start him in training. Alert me when he's working, the boy must know something to be such an accomplished killer. You're his handler now." Fury adds as a side note. "I'd suggest you two get to know one another, because he'll be under you're care for a very long time." Coulson only nods. After all it had been his idea to recruit Barton, rather then dispose of him. If things didn't work out, he had no doubt that everything would fall back on him. Hill and Fury would make sure of that.


	3. Chapter 3

Clint was bored of being in the sterile white room when Phil finally came to get him exactly 26 hour and 32 minutes after he left him in the room with only a bed to keep him company. While Clint was fine with being alone for long periods of time, he wasn't fine with doing nothing. Sure various people had come in and talked to him, but he didn't really like talking. His brother had knocked him deaf on his ninth birthday, they'd gotten into a fight at the circus. Jaques the sword swallower had gotten involved, one large top of his head and he'd dropped like lead onto a large tent stake. They'd left him unconscious and bleeding from his ears for hours before Carson had discovered him and given him to his wife to be cared for. Barney and Jaques had been punished for hurting Clint, he was after all the star of the carnival, but Clint no longer felt safe there. He'd stayed for a year, then when the opportunity presented itself, he'd run away, taking about $200,000 with him. He'd turned to thieving and killing to make a living. He answered to no one, except the occasional boss that hired him for a few different hits, but for the most part he was used to being alone. And being alone meant no talking, so his hearing issue hadn't really been that much of a problem, most of his instructions had come in writing anyways.

Right before Phil came into the room, another doctor had come in. This one with headphones and supposed beeping noises he couldn't hear, unless, according to the doctor the volume was turned up all the way and the beeps in an extreme high or low range. Clint didn't know what that meant of particularly care, he knows he can't hear shit. The doctor had left, speaking words too fast for Clint to understand, and he'd been fine with that. The doctor didn't have the power to take him out of this stupidly boring room. He knows only Phil can do that. Which is why he's so excited to see the man.

"Phil." Clint says, strapping his bow to his back over his quiver. His eyes narrow in on a suspiciously familiar set of equipment in Phil's hands. "Are those mine?" He asks, not happy that Phil is touching his private possessions.

"Yeah." Phil hands them back to the young archer, excited, Clint quickly sorts them into his quiver. Once he's done, Phil opens the door wide. "Want to come with me?" Clint jumps to his feet and follows wordlessly. Phil stops at the nurses desk where the doctor who had just seen Clint hands him two small clear plastic objects shaped like Clint's ears. Phil hands them to Clint.

He makes sure he speaks slow and clear so Clint can read his lips. "Those are hearing aids. They go in your ear." Clint shoots Phil a weary look but the man only smiles encouragingly. Slowly Clint puts them in his ears, surprised when he can hear Phil speak much clearer. "They can't restore your hearing, nothing can do that, it's 90% gone but it can slow done any additional loss and help so that you can hear at roughly a 40% range instead of a 10%." Clint nods, not one to say thank you. Phil takes what he can get and motions for Clint to follow him. They take the long way to the living quarters from the infirmary so Phil can show Clint the majority of the training base. Most of the agent's are twice Clint's age, Clint is careful to notice. Phil takes Clint to one of the few single rooms in the building, usually reserved for seasoned agents freshening up on their skills. However with Clint being so young, Fury believed he'd do best in a single. "This is your room."

"Kind of boring, isn't it?" Clint asks, it's much like the medical room, only it has a closet, bedside table and desk. The walls are painted a dark ugly gray.

"You can decorate it if you like, these are just the training personal quarters. Once you're a full ranked agent we provide apartments."

"Are you in charge of me, or something?" Clint asks, slightly confused why he's only met one agent in an agency supposedly full of spies.

"Or something. The agency wanted to have you killed, they put me in charge of the case. It was my job to find out about you, find your location then send an agent in to dispose of you. I dug around a little, realized you were only a child and asked to change the objective of the mission. I believed you deserved a second chance, which is why you're here. If this arrangement ends up not working out, I'm the guy they'll blame. So I'm not in charge of you neccisarily, think of me as more of your guide/handler. I make sure you don't make stupid decisions and if you do, I clean up the mess." Phil stares the boy down. "And believe me I don't like cleaning up messes."

The boy fights off the urge to shudder under the agent's cold glare. "What do I call you then?" He asks the man.

"Phil works, or Coulson. Or even Agent. I don't really care what you call me as long as you behave."

"Why'd you save me?" Clint is unused to anyone showing him kindness, much less a stranger, but if what Phil says is true he owes the man his life.

"It doesn't matter why, just make sure it was worth it." Barton nods, accepting the answer and filing it away.

"There's clothing the closet, you might want to change. I'll be back in fifteen minutes. Then you start training."

"He's like a machine." Fury watches as Clint, tucks, ducks, rolls, punches, and knocks down various agents with incredible speed and agility. He's never seen a trained agent, much less a new recruit that is able to move the way the boy does. His hearing disability, Fury thought might hinder his abilities, but it seems to leave him unaffected what so ever. As the young agent dispatches his third senior agent in five minutes, Coulson joins him.

"He's good, isn't he sir." Coulson says himself watching Barton in amazement through the one way glass.

"He's damn good, Coulson." Fury gives the boy one of his highest compliments. "And your intel suggests that this wasn't the way he was murdering all those people."

"No sir, he prefers to snipe with a bow. He can shoot a man through the eye from thousands of meters away. His skill, it's unmatched. We have no snipers with guns that can do that, much less preform the task with a bow."

"Well he's just taken out four of my best agents." Fury says watching as the fourth man goes down unable to get up.

"I'm thinking of having him refine his skills with a trainer for about a week, hand to hand close combat, gun firing which I think he asks and of course archery. Then sir, other then his age, I see no reason not to send him on assignments."

"He doesn't seem one to like being idle. Ideally he'd be eighteen before he's given assignment, but I don't think that will work. He's probably already seen more then he'll encounter with SHIELD if I send him on low risk missions."

"I believe he has sir."

"I'll put together a team this week for him to join. Until then you make sure he's training until he can't stand on his feet. You understand?"

"Yes sir."


	4. Chapter 4

"So, let me get this straight." Currently Phil and Clint are located in the Starbucks not far from SHIELD's headquarters. Shortly after his arrival to SHIELD, Phil had found that Clint has an addiction to coffee. He'd found the boy holding a senior agent hostage in their apartment while he borrowed their coffee maker to make a pot. Phil had found the scene amusing so he'd not interfered, but even he had found it extreme when Clint took the freshly brewed pot and drank straight from the pot. Since then Clint had been given his own coffee maker, and Phil had been taking him out once a day to get a cup from Starbucks so they could talk. "You want me to work in a team?" The tone of disbelief in Clint's leads Clint to believe that this conversation won't end well.

"Is that a problem?"

"Yes." Clint says sounding every bit the twelve year old he is.

"Is there a way I can make it not a problem?" Coulson asks seriously but unable to help himself he adds teasingly. "Perhaps I could buy every starbucks in the world for you."

"I still wouldn't work with a team." Clint says without hesitation. "I can't be bribed."

"I like that in an agent." Phil says honestly. "So how am I going to get you to be a team player."

"You're not." Clint says firmly looking around the small shop he takes notice of all the exits.

"The director isn't going to allow a twelve year old a solo mission." Coulson says grabbing their coffees when their order is called, they head toward the door to continue the conversation in an area with less densely populated ears.

"I'm not doing anything otherwise, I'll stay in training."

"And he still won't allow you out." Phil says. "Protocol states that all new agents must start in a team with a handler, then if they preform well they can be assigned a partner or solo mission."

"I don't like following rules very much." Clint mutters sipping down his extra large dark roast coffee with extra sugar quickly. Coulson cringes just looking at the cup, much preferring his own mocha frappe.

"Learn to adapt." Phil offers the stubborn twelve year old back into SHIELD headquarters.

"Nah, I'm good." Clint walks off, headed in the opposite direction of the training headquarters.

"Where are you going?" Phil asks realizing that it seems the boy is headed for the more office area of SHIELD, an area he's not allowed access. Fury had made sure of that, even going as far as moving Phil's own office into a spare single dorm. The director was weary of Clint's abilities and didn't particularly want him having access to an area where SHIELD's most classified documents are kept. At least until he proved himself to be trustworthy.

"The director's office." Clint says following the map he'd memorized of the building plans in his head.

"You're not allowed..."

"Phil, you're starting to make me pissed off." The boy says pushing the elevator button.

"And you've already pissed me off, what's your point?"

"When I'm pissed off I don't just decide not to sign important documents." Clint says as the elevator begins to climb.

"You have to listen to me, I'm your handler." Phil tries as one last ditch effort to get Clint to listen. But the boy just scoffs, holding out his coffee.

"The only thing I have to do is drink coffee so I can live, everything else in life is optional." Before Phil can resort to desperate measures, gaining Barton's trust be damned. The elevator dings announcing their arrival. Barton slips out of the small room and into Fury's much larger office, Phil closely behind giving up hope on stopping him.

"Agent Coulson, Barton." Fury says surprised by their unannounced arrival. "What can I do for you?"

"Phil says you want me to work in a team, I don't do teams."

"Is that so." Fury humors the boy. "And what do you do?"

"I work alone."

"I see." Fury looks to Phil who can only shrug, he's given up. "Well Agent Barton, it seems I'll have to allow you to do so. I happen to have a file on my desk right now of a man that needs to be taken out. You want to travel to Afghanistan?"

"A little dry this time of year, but not all that unpleasant." Barton says slightly surprising Fury, they didn't know Barton had been to Afghanistan.

"You leave in two days with Agent Coulson. I'll send him the files you'll need to prepare for the mission."

"I said solo."

"This is a solo mission, Agent Coulson will only be there to be your supervisor. "Now if you gentleman will excuse me, I have a meeting I need to get too."

"I still can't believe you." Coulson shakes his head as he flies one of SHIELD's smaller planes toward Afghanistan.

"I told you I work alone." Barton says cleaning his already impeccable arrows. "Can I drive?"

"Yeah, like I'm going to let a twelve year old without even a drivers license fly a plane."

"So that's a no?"

"Yeah it's a..." Before Coulson can finish his sentence he feels a needle slip into his neck. He glares at the young agent as he looses control of his limbs.

"Looks like I'm going to have to fly, unless you want us to crash?" Barton looks down at the ocean a couple thousand meters below them.

"How'd you get ahold of the paralysis serum?" Coulson asks.

"You should learn to lock the doors of secret labs better." Barton offers, picking up the helpless Coulson and moving him over to the co-pilot seat. "Now you want to tell me how to drive this thing? Or would you like to take a swim today?"

"Barton, do you copy?" Barton's earpiece for is built right into his hearing aids, it's however untested technology and the connection is sketchy at best, something Coulson wished he'd known before they left for Afghanistan. Then he could have bought the boy a cell phone.

"Shh." Barton whispers, turning down the volume on his hearing aid, unused to such direct communication verbally, he doesn't like it at all. "I'm focusing."

"Yeah well focus on this, you've got incoming hostiles." Phil says monitoring the security cameras for the area, it appears someone has spotted Barton.

"I know." Barton whispers once more, shifting his weight prepared to spring on the men as soon as the door opens. "It's my target."

"What, how..." Barton turns off his hearing aids, silencing Phil. He knows he'll hear about it later but now he needs to focus. While the job had originally been assigned as a long distance snipe, Clint had been gathering intel in the town and had found a different opportunity to take out his target, one that required a lot less time. All he had to do was wait for the target to come up to the roof of his apartment building to shoot up from his stash. When he did, which would be any second now. Clint would pick him off. Clint watches from his dark corner as the roof access door opens, his target steps out into the moonlight. Clint releases his arrow, before the man can spot him he's dead. Clint's arrow sticking out of his eye socket. Slightly disgusted as he always is after seeing a kill upclose, Clint retrieves the arrow, cleaning it on the man's shirt he sticks it back into his quiver. Needing to leave before someone discovers the man, Clint launches another arrow with a length of wire attatched to it onto a lower roof. He then uses his makeshift zipline to leave, turning his hearing aids back on as he does so. He quickly turns them back off, not wanting to hear the obscenities Coulson is shouting at him through the connection.

"Sir, he abandoned all protocol." Coulson complains to Fury in their debriefing meeting, during the entire hour long meeting, Fury has had to act as mediator between Coulson and Agent Barton.

"Protocol is for your trained monkeys, you brought me in because you wanted something more than that." When he speaks Barton sounds much wiser then his twelve years.

"Put him on probation and nail his ass with a team." Coulson insists ignoring Barton's comment.

"I believe that putting Agent Barton on a team would only cost our own agents lives. He's made it clear he'll do whatever he pleases and while that is fine for a solo agent, it could cost a teams entire mission and lives. And as Barton pointed out earlier in this meeting, a team would only hold him back. There isn't a man in our organization that could have disposed of his target as quickly and efficiently as he did. We didn't even have to send in a clean up crew, other then to retrieve the body. He's demonstrated his skills Phil, and I'm not going to punish him for that."

"Then give him another handler." Coulson says glaring at the boy.

"You brought him to this agency, Phil, you deal with him for the first year. That was our deal. Come back when Agent Barton is 13 and I'll consider you're request to be reassigned until then, you'll be headed to China."


	5. Chapter 5

"You know, it's relaxing, knowing I won't have to follow you around the world anymore." Coulson says, speaking with Barton in his private living areas after a long debriefing with Director Fury. With Barton now being 14, Fury has decided that he can go on missions completely by himself. Coulson is to provide him with the necessary information for the mission, then he is supposed to call him once the mission is done. A much simpler and happier relationship for the two of them. Not that Coulson minded supervising Barton so closely, no what he minded was when Barton decided to not listen and ended up getting hurt. Those were the missions that he loathed.

"You'll miss when I'm gone for a week." Barton says confidently. Since his arrival at SHIELD two years previous, the two had barely been out of one another's company. Especially since Barton refused to use his own living quarters and had taken up residence in Phil's apartment.

"No I won't." Phil says equally as confident. "You're a cruel boy who doesn't play well with others, it will be nice to have you out of my hair."

"You like having me around and you know it." Clint says stealing Phil's last french fry off his plate.

"I'd like you more if I saw less of you." Phil says annoyed, he goes to get more french fries. "And if you learned to play nicely." He adds. Just last week Barton had gotten into a fight with a younger but still senior to Barton agent. It had come to blows, Barton has won, sending the other man to the hospital while he had only a few bruises.

"Not in my nature." Barton says scrunching up his nose. "That's like asking me to share my morning cup of coffee."

"Which would fall under playing nicely." Phil points out.

"Speaking of coffee, I'm going to Starbucks, you want anything?"

Phil gives up trying to coach Barton. "Yeah, I'll come with you." He grabs his jacket and follows the boy out of the room.

Phil is working at his desk the next day when he hears screaming coming from the cubical area. Concerned, he grabs his gun and carefully approaches the situation. Another scream sounds and he opens his door. When he doesn't see a threat he eases around the door. He sees his secretary cowering under her desk. He joins her, needing intel on the situation.

"Harley, what's going on?" He asks his gun still in hand.

"Clint." Is all the woman is able to say before Coulson witnesses the situation himself. Barton appears to be dropping out of ceiling tiles with an air-soft gun in hand shooting at unsuspecting desk agents. No longer concerned for his safety, Clint stands up from underneath the desk and glares directly at Barton who sees him and waves a wild grin on his face as he opens fire again, sending the agents back underneath their desks.

"Barton." Phil says sternly using the boy's last name. He gives him the glare and point that Fury often gives himself. The technique however is ineffective for Barton just grins, shoots one last secretary then swings back into the ceiling. Not wanting other areas of the building to be caught of guard, Phil grabs his walkie and pages both Hill and Fury. For eventually Barton will come for them.

"Who gave Barton a goddamn air-soft gun?" Apparently Barton had already visited Hill and she had a large welt on her collarbone to prove it. Normally Phil would find the situation humorous but as her anger was currently directed toward himself, Barton's handler he found no humor in the situation.

"I'm not aware of who, but as soon as I find out, I assure you they will be throughly punished." Phil says, ushering Hill into his office.

"What is he doing in the ceiling?" She asks throwing her hands in the air frustrated.

"Again I'm not sure, but I have a feeling he spends a large amount of time there, just not normally armed with air-soft guns."

"Shouldn't you be controlling him?" Maria asks throwing Coulson a glare. "You are still his handler, aren't you."

"I am. And last I knew he'd gone to the archery range to practice. You know as well as I that he gets bored and does stuff like this. I really don't think it's my fault, but I'll try to wrestle him back into line."

"Get on it Coulson." Hill says storming out of his office no doubt going to complain to Fury.

Phil sighs, how on earth is he supposed to stop Barton.

"Sir, I need an assignment for Barton." Phil walks into Fury's office shortly after Hill has left his.

"And why is that?" Fury asks, unaccustomed to Phil asking him for anything regarding Barton.

"He's bored."

"Which is a problem because..."

"He's shooting desk agents with air-soft guns, Sir."

"Get him under control."

"He's a fourteen year old boy trapped in a building with no one else his age, sir. With all due respect, I don't think I'll be able to get him under control. Especially because he's decided to take up residence in the ceilings."

"The only assignment I have is a surveillance assignment in Germany I was about to give a Hill to assign. That's not really Barton's style, nor does he currently posses the security clearance. Which I remind you was at your own request."

"He'd need to be level 5 for the assignment?" Phil clarifies.

"Yes, it has to do with Russia." Fury says already sliding the file across the desk.

"Promote him." Phil says, with a shrug. "He'd need to gain the clearance sometime, why not now."

"The assignment is his, Kate will be his supervisor. You're dismissed as his handler." Phil balks at the dismissal.

"What do you mean sir?"

"I mean you've been complaining about Barton being a pain in your ass for the last two years, and Kate needs an agent underneath her. So for this assignment you're dismissed from your watch over Agent Barton."

"He won't listen to her." Phil says remembering a conversation just earlier that week between the two agents. Phil seems to recall that it ended with Barton being flung across the room.

"Then he'll suffer disciplinary action. You've been coddling him for too long. You'll be seeing over Kate from now on."

"But she's..."

"A new handler that still requires a handler of her own. Barton is her responsibility you stay hands off. But you'll still oversee the mission and how Kate handles it and Barton. Do you understand."

"Yes, Sir."

Later that night, Phil finds Barton eating pizza on his couch.  
"Is that delivery?" Phil asks not really wanting to know the answer while grabbing a slice out of the box.

"Yeah, but I had the deliver it down the block to an apartment building. Don't worry I wasn't stupid enough to order here twice." Phil nods happily munching the delicious dish. He'd never been a fan until Clint had introduced him to this particular restaurant.

"What's the movie?" He asks nodding to the television. Clint has a huge movie nerd and often had week long marathons. Phil had even caught him reviewing various movies online in incredible detail.

"Annie." Clint says pausing the movie. Phil knows that while Clint will never admit it, the movie is one of the boy's favorites and he hates to miss any of the dialogue .

"Is it almost over?" He asks knowing Clint won't want to talk until the movie is over.

"Just started." Clint says getting up from the couch to grab a bag of popcorn he'd popped twenty minutes before from the microwave. "Why you need something?" He asks finally picking up on Phil's mood.

"What was with the stunt this morning?" Phil asks with a sigh, already knowing the answer.

"Fury paid me a hundred dollars to hit Assistant Director Hill with the airsoft gun but to make it look like I was just causing hell." Clint confesses catching Phil off guard.

"Really?" Phil asks his brain spinning.

"Yeah." The boy pulls the bill out of his pocket. "I owe you." He tires to pass the bill to Phil but Coulson waves him off.

"Keep it." Phil says knowing that the money might save Clint's life someday, especially now that he's being switched to an inexperienced handler.

"That's not whats bothering you, is it?" Clint asks when Coulson continues to fidget. "You didn't get in trouble for what I did, did you? I mean Fury was the one who told me to do it. He shouldn't have punished you and if Hill did, he would have overrode it wouldn't he?"

"No, I'm not in trouble." Phil says silently adding, but you might be. He decides to take a roundabout approach to the subject. "Are you still teaching Agent Kate sign language?" Coulson asks hoping the answer is no.

"Uh yeah, I thought it was odd Fury asked me too but she's stuck with it so I didn't think it would be wise not to." Clint had tried to teach Phil during their first few months together, but he'd failed miserably. Since then the two had resorted to morse code bracelets that translated Phil's speech into the language so Clint can understand Phil when he doesn't have his hearing aids in, which is often.

"Is she any good?" Phil asks digging for anything he can use to argue with Fury.

"Yeah, way better then you were. She can sign almost anything now. What's going on Coulson?"

"You're being assigned to a new handler." Phil admits bitterly.

"Did you ask for me to reassigned?" Barton sounds hurt. After the first few months of working together, their problems had been worked out. Phil had learned to live with the fact that Barton wouldn't always follow protocol and Clint had learned to work in a team environment.

"No, I didn't." Phil is now frustrated. "I was probably more surprised then you are right now."

"Whose my new handler?" Clint asks wearily. There are few agents he gets along with in the organization, and after today that list is probably shorter.

"Agent Kate."

"Agent Kate is my new handler? She's been with the organization for less time then I have."

"She's been in training for the position, you're her first assignment."

"Why haven't I been in training to be a handler?"

"You never asked to be. Besides being a handler would mean you have to get along with people."

"I get along with people just fine." This was true, Clint had a way of making people in at ease with him. He could get a total stranger to tell him their life story after being around them for only minutes. It was an unnerving ability that Phil had yet to see anyone match. The reason no one at SHIELD particularly cares for him is he knows too much about everyone because of his skills.

"You'd have to follow protocol."

"Never mind." Clint says his face puckering in distaste. "You've got too many rules."

"I'll be overseeing Kate but Fury has made it clear that I'm not to interfere with her authority over you. She won't be nice Clint, she'll be trying to prove herself, so I'd toe the line you normally disregard with me and try to follow the rules."

"For you, I'll try." Clint says, already plotting on how to get rid of Kate.

"There's another thing. You leave for Germany tomorrow for a surveillance assignment. So finish Annie then get to bed."  
"Yes, sir." Clint salutes Phil jokingly as he clicks the television back on.


	6. Chapter 6

"Morning Clint." Kate signs while smiling at the half asleep teenager as Agent Coulson half carries, half drags him toward the helicarrier. She offers him the Starbucks coffee in her right hand made exactly how Clint likes it. He accepts it and takes a large drink off the extra large coffee, immediately perking up.

"Phil told me you run on coffee and pizza." She signs causing Clint to laugh. Phil stands off to the side hoping Clint won't notice his perturbed look at Kate and Clint's friendship and his lack of the ability to understand what they're saying.

"He's not wrong." Clint signs bouncing his way toward the ramp of the helicarrier.

"You good?" Phil asks Kate once Clint is in the cockpit of the vehicle.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll check in with you when we land." Kate can't help the cold tone in her voice, she's never been one to like having a handler much like Clint, Phil notes.

"Make sure you look after Clint." Phil warns her, fully ready to hold her responsible if anything happens to the boy.

"I will, but I can't promise he won't come home a little banged up. So don't ask me too."

"Goodbye Kate." Phil says turning on his heel, he walks out of the runway area and back inside

"How's it looking?" Kate asks Clint who is currently using his binoculars to spy on the sandwich shop they'd ordered their dinner from.

"Almost done, if we leave now they should be done by the time we get there." Kate nods and heads for the door Clint not far behind her.

"There is a coffee maker in that kitchen right?" Clint asks as they walk down the street. As his handler it's Kate's job now to make sure such things are in his safe houses.

"Uh..." Kate forgot to put in the request. It wasn't a large oversight on her part as normally such luxuries weren't allowed to be requested but after Clint had once gone a week without coffee, Fury and Coulson had agreed it was in everyone's best interest to make sure he has access to it at all hours of the day. "No. There isn't."

"Phil always makes sure I have a coffee pot." Clint mutters, hitting a nerve of Kate's. He'd been complaining since they left whenever she didn't measure up to Coulson's standards and she was getting quite sick of it.

"Listen Barton, I'm not Coulson. And I will never be Coulson. I realize you got a pretty sweet gig when you started with SHIELD by having him as your only handler, but he's gone now. I'm your handler, and nothing you do or say is going to change that."

"You want to bet?" Clint asks raising an eyebrow, always one to love a challenge.

"You know what, I do. There is nothing you can do, Barton that will change Fury's mind."

"You're on." Clint says, a determined look filling his eyes, he flashes her a mischievous grin. "You're going to eat your words." Before Kate can do anything to stop him, Clint takes off a sprint down the block and disappears inside the sandwich shop. Not even a minute later he emerges, their sandwiches in hand and the owner in tow, he runs back toward Kate.

"He's mad." Clint yells as he runs past her and down the block out of sight. "Deal with it."

"Uh..." Kate says as she comes face to face with the large burly man who glares at her. "Don't mind my brother, he's not quite right." She tries to joke but the man only increases his glare. After a second she cracks. "Alright what did he do?"

"You owe me twenty two fifty." The owner says, holding his hand out for the money. Kate digs in her pockets and pulls out an assortment of bills and hands them over. The owner counts out the money then storms away. Kate then begins looking for Clint, she finds him sitting on a bench a block and half away eating her sandwich since he's already finished his own.

"Is that all you've got?" She asks sitting down beside him.

"I haven't even started yet." Clint says polishing off the second sandwich.

"You blew the mission." Kate screams at Clint. "To get the number of a girl?"

"No…not intentionally." Clint says sounding slightly sheepish.

"But you did."

"Yeah, I got made." Clint admits, looking down at his feet.

"I can't believe you."

"You'd understand if you'd seen the girl." Clint says.

"She probably gave you a fake number." Kate says pulling out the confiscated piece of paper. She also grabs her cell. She dials the number.

"I'm sorry…." Kate hangs up.

"The number's inactive." Kate throws the paper at Clint. "I can't believer you." She rounds on him again. "This is not the behavior of the infamous Clint Barton, brilliant archer, renowned assassin, and one of SHIELD's most valuable assets. You're actions were those of a teenage boy."

"Maybe that's because I am a teenage boy." Clint spits back, tired of senior agents forgetting that. Phil had always kept his age in mind, he'd always made sure Clint had time to be a kid while getting the job done. He'd also made sure to check in with Clint after every kill mission to talk him through it and make sure he didn't take it to heart. The far away snipes were easy, it was the up close kills that messed with Clint's head.

"No you're not, you're a SHIELD agent. That comes first, and that's a lesson you should grow up and learn." Kate signs and speaks to make sure Clint understands her anger.

Clint has no response to her words, after a few minutes of staring at her with his mouth open like a fish his mind reeling he regains control of his speech.

"I'm going to bed." Clint signs, not waiting for a response he stomps to the one bedroom and slams the door in Kate's face.

"I'm not working under her." Barton screams running into Fury's office. Hill, Kate and Coulson at his heels. "I will leave this organization before I work under her one more day." Barton adds, his face is flushed with anger his breathing heavy.

"Agent Hill, would you care to explain the situation?" Fury asks assuming by Hill's presence that a conversation had been happening in her office before Barton had left.

"Kate and Clint had a… disagreement while on their mission. Barton came to me to complain the moment they came back from their unsuccessful mission."

"I'm assuming you gave him an answer he didn't like." Fury says sizing up Barton once more who is still steaming. If he were a cartoon steam would be coming out of his ears.

"You could say that." Hill says walking across the room to stand behind the Director.

"Agent Coulson, why are you here?"

"Disciplinary action for both Agents needs to be discussed, I'm trying to understand the situation before I deliver punishment."

"You may leave, I'll handle this." Fury says sending Coulson away with a wave of his hand. He then turns to the two remaining agents in the room.

"Barton, Kate sit." He barks motioning to the two chairs in front of his desk. "What happened?" This time he addresses Hill.

"According to Agent Kate's reports, Agent Barton purposely sabotaged their mission then was insubordinate when she tried to address the issue."  
"All I did was go to bed." Clint interrupts frustrated.

"I don't care, Agent Barton. You two will eventually learn to get along, but perhaps I was wrong giving one of you a rank over the other. From now on you two are partners unless a mission requires otherwise. Hill will be your handler. You both are dismissed."


	7. A note

If you would like faster story updates share with me a google drive email and I will share the stories on drive with you. I have limited access to this site with my laptop yet I write tons and always have a lot I want to publish. So anyways, my email is philbrickma17 . If you're interested in this offer you can email me so I can then add you to the list of permitted viewers of my drive. Don't worry, this doesn't mean I'm no longer updating on this site, it just means that if you want fast updates as I write the pieces there is a way for you to do so.


	8. Chapter 7

"I get your punishing both of them by making them work in a team, but why are you punishing me as well?" Hill asks once the two teenagers are gone.

"I'm not punishing you, I'm stretching Agent Barton's limits. I need to know he's loyal to this agency and not Coulson."

"Then you should have reassigned him ages ago when you realized Coulson was attached to the boy."

"Have you read the new intel that has come in on the Black Widow?" Fury asks seemingly changing the subject.

"Yes, it appears she's getting, stronger, bolder and is no longer attached to the red room. Her kills are getting more numerous, much like Bar..." Hill trails off understanding the plan Fury has laid out.

"We'll let her get comfortable but keep eyes and ears on her while Barton proves himself."

"He's already proved himself, he has our highest kill rate."

"True, but she's just as well trained as he is. I don't want to send him on a suicide mission. Besides who says I want her killed?"

"Agent Hill, I'm concerned about Agent Barton." Phil walks into Hill's office two weeks after Clint was removed from his supervision.

"Agent Barton is no longer your concern." Hill says barely glancing up from her pile of paperwork.

"I know, he's yours."

"Which means you shouldn't be concerned." Hill says. A thin smile on her face.

"I know but, I am. I haven't seen him around the facility at all in almost a week."

"He's in training with Agent Kate. They're learning to work together. As you must realize it's going to take a lot of training."

"Yes, but he hasn't been home at all."

"And home is where exactly? Have you been overstepping your boundaries Agent? Are you checking in on my assignments?" Hill now sounds annoyed and her thin smile has slipped into a scowl.

"Barton hasn't lived in his own quarters for almost two years, he insists on crashing on my couch. I'm only voicing my concern that he hasn't come back to my apartment in a week."

Hill sighs in annoyance, with a disapproving cluck of her tongue she picks up her extension. "Page Agent Barton to my office." She instructs her assistant. A call goes out, Hill continues her work while Coulson waits for Clint to surface. When ten minutes have passed and Clint still hasn't surfaced Hill picks up her phone once more this time dialing Barton's extension. When Barton doesn't pick up she can't help but be annoyed by Phil's condescending grin.

She picks up her phone again, this time dialing her assistant. "Have all available agents search the building for Agent Barton, if he's found they are to bring him directly to my office." She turns to Phil whose look has turned to one of amusement.

"I'll inform you when Agent Barton is found, until then I assume you have work to do Agent."


	9. Chapter 8

"Barney." Clint calls out to his brother when he sees him leaving the circus tent. Even after almost five years, his brother hasn't changed. Barney turns to Clint's voice, vague recognition lighting up his face at the sound of his younger brother's voice. He however doesn't look happy to see Clint, not that Clint's surprised.

"What the hell are you doing here, Clint?" Barney asks walking into the shadows where Clint has been lurking since the show started almost two hours prior.

"I have no where else to go, Barney."

"So you come here." His brother hisses grabbing Clint by the elbow he drags him toward the Carnival's private living areas. "Are you really that fucking stupid, or do you have a death wish?"

"I'm desperate, Barn." Clint whispers. For now his hoodie, hat, and the dark will disguise his identity but nothing will stop the carnies from recognizing him in the morning.

"So you come to me?" Barney snorts. "What makes you think I'll help you?" His brother asks as he pushes his brother into his trailer. He slams the door behind them.

"You're my brother, Barney. You're all I've got left."

"You know Carson wants to kill you right? He nearly killed me because you left."

"Don't blame that on me, you know why I left."

"Yeah, well. We weren't treating you that bad. You had it nice here, you had a job, a roof over your head, clothes, and food in your stomach."

"Only because you forced me for years to steal, lie and cheat people out of their money."

"No one ever forced you."

"Yeah, you just made me starve for a month."

"Get out Clint." Barney motions to the door, but Clint knows he also means he wants him to get out of his life.

"Do you really think I'd be here if there was any other place I could go? Barney, I'm willing to put the past behind us if you are. Right now I need some help."

"What's after you anyways?" Barney asks his eyes narrowing, finally figuring out the real reason Clint is so insistent he needs help. "Government or something? Aw, hell Clint. You ain't got no police chasing you do you?"

"Not police, something much worse once they realize I'm gone. But I had to get out Barney. I couldn't do it anymore." Clint shudders. Despite Coulson's best efforts to reassure him all those people's deaths were necessary and that he was doing the world a favor, Clint still couldn't sleep at night. The faces of those he'd seen up close, the shapes of those he'd shot down from afar haunt his dreams, making the few times he does sleep hardly restful.

"The mob then?" Barney asks, less concerned then if the Police had been chasing his brother.

"Them too. Look I just need a place to lie low for a while, possibly a long while. I don't want my old position in the circus, just a stage hand. Carson doesn't even have to pay me, all I need is a place to stay and a guarantee I won't be sold out if someone comes sniffing around." Barney sizes Clint up for a good long minute before answering.

"Alright, I'll talk to Carson. But this is the last time ever I'm sticking my neck out for you Clint. Don't ever ask again."

"I appreciate it Barney."

"Ah, shove it up your ass, Clint." Barney says stomping out of the trailer. "And I hope you got over the moral disposition of yours, you'll be doing all the same stuff as before." He adds as he stomps off into the night to disturb the Carnival director.

Barney comes back almost two hours later to find Clint sleeping in a lawn chair by the warm stove. Despite their differences, Barney managed to negotiate with Carson and get Clint a spot at the carnival once more. Maybe it's due to his recent brotherly act, but Barney grabs a spare blanket and dumps it on Clint since he's shivering.

"Get up, you lazy piece of shit." Barney says dumping Clint onto the floor by tipping over his lawn chair. "It's time to take down the tents." He adds as he walks out of the trailer a cigarette in his hands waiting to be lit. "Be there in five minutes." Clint groans but quickly picks himself up off the ground and follows Barney, even jogging to catch up. Mostly as a joke Barney offers Clint a cigarette, but he's more then surprised when Clint takes it and lights it.

"Thanks." Clint says taking a drag off the stick. It's not coffee but it'll do to get him going.

"Since when do you smoke?" Barney asks, slightly disturbed that Clint's not the same innocent kid he last knew.

"Since a few months ago." Clint says even though the cigarette is his first ever.

"Well try to quit, it's a nasty habit." Barney lectures while taking a drag off his own.

"You're a great role model." Clint quips, quickly ducking afterward to avoid the blow Barney sends his way.

"You're fast now." Barney notes when his blow lands no where near Clint's head where it was aimed. He gives his brother a good look over for the first time since his resurfacing. "You work out or something?"

"Or something." Clint says, a slightly dark look clouding his eyes. "You going to lecture me if I go ask Henrietta for one of the beers she's drinking?" Clint asks looking up ahead.

"Knock yourself out." Barney says motioning for Clint to go ahead. Clint runs up ahead, and Jaques joins Barney's side.

"The kid is back?" Jaques says noting Clint's presence.

"Yeah, he showed up last night. He claims he's got no where else to go. Asked me to get him a job again as a stage hand. Doesn't care if he gets paid as long as no one rats him out if anyone comes sniffing around asking for him."

"Sounds like he's in some shit. You sure that's your brother? The Clint I remember wouldn't have come back here even if the United States Government was chasing his ass."

"Yeah, it's him. But I'm not sure what the hell he's been doing these last five years. He's different."

"Who is he in trouble with? The police?"

"Nah, he said it wasn't them. He said it was something worse then the police."

"Mob?"

"Something like that, but someone else too. He wouldn't tell me anything else though."

"Better get to work, Carson's coming."

Hill sighs when she hears the last words she wants to hear. "Agent Barton isn't in the building, or any SHIELD approved building."

"Are you positive. He's not in an air duct somewhere?"

"That's a negative, they've all been throughly searched. Agent Barton is AWOL." The head of SHIELD security reports. Hill sighs again, then waves for him to dismiss himself. Once he's gone, she dials Fury's extension.

"Director, we have a situation. I need you to meet me in Conference Room A on the third floor." Hill sighs again once she's hung up before she dials Coulson's line. She just knows he's going to be a smug bastard about it.

"So Barton?" Henrietta, Carson's daughter and the Circus' resident trapeze artist looks around her boyfriend Barney to his younger brother. "What have you been up too since you left our fine company?"

"Hustling." Clint says shrugging. He's had quiet a few beers, somewhere around six or seven, so he's not as composed as usual. "I worked for the government the last few years." He adds.

"Really, doing what?" Henrietta bats her eyelashes. Barney would be annoyed if he hadn't asked her to flirt with Clint to find out more about his missing five years.

"I was an assassin." Clint slurs kicking back another beer. The group laughs not taking him serious.

"No, what were you really doing? I didn't think the government hired fifteen year olds."

"I was twelve when I was recruited. And I was an assassin, but technically my tittle was Agent. I just happened to get all the kill jobs due to my impeccable skills with a weapon." Clint polishes off another beer. Concerned about his brother. Barney stops him from taking another.

"You should go to bed, kid." Barney says, seeing Clint's unfocused eyes due to the alcohol is unsettling. They're usually as sharp as a bird.

"I'm not tired." Clint says pushing past his brother's hand to grab another beer.

"You're not making any sense." Barney says tightening his grip on Clint's wrist, he applies enough pressure that if Clint moves he'll break his wrist. "You need to go to bed."

"I really was an assassin." Clint insists, but he quickly realizes no one is going to believe him. "Fine, I'll go to bed." He says unsteadily standing on his feet. Barney grabs his arm and helps him stay standing upright. Barney quickly leads Clint back to Barney's trailer. As they walk, Clint reaches up to grab his hearing aids. He pulls them out of his ears and places them into his jeans pocket. Barney notices the devices for the first time. He hadn't realized Clint's hearing loss was bad enough to need them. A lead-like guilt fills the bottom of his stomach. He'd injured Clint when he was just a boy. It was his fault his brother was disabled. It was his fault Clint had run away from the circus. Barney quickly shakes the thoughts out of his mind and decides to lay off the beer for the rest of the night. It makes him moody. With little caring or grace, he helps Clint into a bunk inside the trailer then climbs into his own. Wishing that he himself had hearing loss when much later Jaques' snoring fills the trailer.

"Agent Barton is missing, sir." Agent Hill reports when all the appropriate people are gathered in the room. "According to all security footage, he hasn't been here in almost a week." She adds reluctantly looking at the Director.

"And why is this just being noticed?" Fury asks his second in command.

"Agent Coulson brought it to my attention that he hadn't seen him in roughly a week. Due to their close relationship, I decided to investigate."

"Agent Kate, why didn't you report his absence at your training sessions."

"I received a note from Clint early one morning nine days ago saying that he was sick and was being sent to a hospital by Agent Hill, since he doesn't like SHIELD's infirmary. I found no reason to question the note." She shrugs. "He left the address of the hospital so we could have team bounding or something like that, but since I thought he was sick enough to be hospitalized I didn't want to be near him."

"So you're all telling me, that the best agent this agency has is AWOL and could be anywhere in the world. And that it's highly unlikely we'll ever find him again as his speciality is not being found."

"Yes, Sir." Agent Hill admits.

Fury takes a deep breath then looks to Agent Coulson. "You found him once Coulson, it's your job to find him again and bring him in."

"Sir, with all due respect. This time Barton will be aware that we'll be looking for him. It might take a while. And I'll need some resources."

"You have the Bus, Agent Kate, Agent Hill and any security camera you want to use at your disposal. Just find him Coulson and bring him in."

"Are you sure this is the same kid?" Jaques asks Barney as the watch Clint down two shots of tequila and take a drag off a joint.

"Yeah, it's Clint. But life's fucked him over one too many times, I think." Barney says watching his little brother shaking his head. Memories of a much younger Clint lecturing himself when he did the same things Clint is doing now.

"He's sticking to his story of being an assassin." Jaques says. Since Clint's arrival at the carnival almost four weeks previous, they've asked Clint about his life away several times, and every time he's claimed he's an assassin.

"Maybe he really was." Barney says watching as Clint moves with an ease most cannot, especially if they're as intoxicated as Clint currently is. "Might explain his behavior, killing a man can't be easy. He's not that old, if he's killed as many as he claims, I'd try to liquify my mind with drugs and alcohol too."

"Carson wants us to rob that bank tomorrow. He says Clint has to come with us." Jaques says, looking over at Clint then at the time. "Drag him to bed, it's two am. Maybe he'll dry out enough to be of use by 3."

"You're going to have to help me." Barney says. The two together go and drag Clint kicking and screaming to bed.


	10. Chapter 9

"This is the best plan you all can come up with?" Clint stares at the blueprints in disbelief, during his time he'd seen Coulson draw out better plans on his cup of coffee.

"No one asked you, you little shit." Jaques spits, defensive as he's the one who had come up with the plans. "Just stay quiet and do as we tell you."

"So let me get this straight, you don't want me to fire the gun, or even show it off unless i'm provoked?"

"What part of keep quiet, don't you understand." Barney hisses at his brother.

"I'm just trying to clarify." Clint says putting his hands up defensively. "Now give me that gun."

Barney passes Clint a gun, expecting to have to show him how to load it. He's more then surprised when Clint loads the gun and sticks in in a gun holster. Out of everyone, Clint looks the part of burglar the most, his SHIELD issued black recon and takeout uniform works nicely for the job. He grabs his provided ski mask off the table then follows the others out of the room and into the unmarked cars.

Ten minutes later, they're at the bank and inside. Due to the horrible plan, Clint assumes, an issue has come up and sirens are outside. Clint's part in the plan was the guard the door, and he does while the others frantically stuff the bags. Four officers rush inside, Clint looks them over. Their guns are drawn and pointed at his chest. Instinctively from his SHIELD training, he shoots the guns out of three of the officer's hands. Before he can shoot the fourth, the officer fires. Clint ducks behind a counter, then shoots the gun out of the officer's hand.

"Are you fucking crazy?" Barney hisses, pulling Clint up off the floor as the other run by toward the back door. "You just shot four cops."

"I didn't shoot them, just their guns." Clint says knowing his words to be true. The officers may be a little shaken but they're unharmed.

"Just move." Barney yells, pushing Clint toward the door. But Clint veers off the path.

"Where are you going?" Barney yells as Clint climbs the stairs toward the roof. When Clint doesn't answer and Barney follows, the rest of the crew reluctantly follows suit.

"They're guarding the back door." Clint informs the others when the burst onto the roof behind him. The others watch as Clint snaps open his bow which had been discreetly strapped to his back. "You'll all zip-line over to that other roof. It has a fire escape you can use to reach the ground. No one will be looking for you a block and a half over." He wraps a thick cable onto his arrow then fires, the arrow fires true and hits and locks onto the other roof. Clint who had a feeling something might go wrong, passes out cables for the others to use to travel the zip-line. Barney, is the first to leave. When Barney doesn't plummet to his death the others quickly follow. Clint is the last to go, when he lands he cuts the line. The others had decided to let Clint take the lead and had waited for him. He leads the way down the fire escape and onto the streets. He searches the cars for a Ford and finds one half a block down. He works quickly and has soon commandeered the vehicle. The team wordlessly climbs in, while Clint reluctantly takes the wheel. Once they're in the car, the silence breaks.

"How the hell did you learn to do all that?" Barney asks his brother, awe audible in his voice.

"I told you, I worked for the Government as an agent/assassin. You learn a few things to stay alive. Like always having a backup plan." While the others try to prompt Clint for more information, he falls silent. He refuses to speak until they're roughly five miles from the carnival's current location. Not one to drive the getaway car to the safe area, he pulls into a gas station and instructs everyone to get out of the car. "You'll have to walk the rest of the way. It's about five miles. I'm going to double back then ditch the car so no one will be able to connect the car theft to the carnival." The moment everyone is out of the car, Clint guns the engine and drives as fast as he can back the way they had just came.

"Sir, we've got a hit on the name Barton." Agent Kate reports to Coulson, who had just gotten off the phone with Fury giving him a progress update. It's been nearly three months since Agent Barton has disappeared and Fury's patience is wearing thin.

"I highly doubt Clint isn't using an alias." Coulson says, tired of false trails. So far, they'd had little luck tracing down Barton, and while they assumed he wasn't operating under any known alias they'd kept tabs on all of Barton's and had had several false alarms.

"It's not a hit on Clint Barton, Sir." Kate says taking a seat across from Coulson, she shows him her laptop screen. "What we've been trying hasn't worked. So I decided to dig into your old files on Clint, you'd jotted down the name Barney Barton, but had no data on him other then he is Clint's only kin and his brother. I thought it was worth a shot to look up something about Barney."

"I'd thought about that, but Clint and Barney had an estranged relationship when I first met Clint. I highly doubt Clint went to Barney for any help."

"Which is why I searched for something about Barney. Clint knew it was the most logical place for him to go and also the least likely you'd look for him. Anyway sir, Barney Barton works for the Carson's Traveling Carnival."

"How'd you find that out, I searched for almost a year for any information no Clint's time with the circus."

"Barney isn't mentioned often, he's a stage hand but a few years back he made a newspaper article. It was after Clint had left them, which is why you're search engine probably disregarded it. Anyway, the carnival is nearby. Just a little over an hours drive. If nothing else, maybe Barney can give us some insight on where Clint might have decided to go."

"It's worth a shot. Get Lola ready, we leave in five minutes."

"What the hell Clint?" Barney pulls his brother out of his bunk where Clint had previously been dead to the world. Normally Barney would have let Clint sleep but he'd just made a disturbing discovery.

Clint glares at his brother from the floor, and while he knows Barney is yelling at him he can't understand what's being said since his hearing aids are on the table across the room. Finally Barney realizing why Clint is being a smart ass or trying to defend himself, throws the offending object at Clint. It's a needle, an empty morphine bottle is thrown along with it.

"So what if i'm taking it?" Clint manages to clammer through his drug addled mind. He'd taken maybe a bit too much on his last dose.

"That's it." Barney yells not caring if Clint can understand him. "You're drying out." He picks Clint up off the floor and supports him. He then half drags, half carries Clint to the nearest car where he lays him in the back seat. Two months ago if Clint had become a drug addict, Barney wouldn't have cared. He might have even sold him some of the drugs. But over the last few months Clint had not only grown on him but also saved his ass more then once, so he wasn't about to let him die over something as stupid as a drug overdose. Barney puts the car in drive and tears down the road. He doesn't have long before he'll have to be back at the big tent. While Clint had originally signed on as a stage hand, due to his exceptional skills in other areas Carson profited from, he was no longer required to preform any of his duties to buy his safe house and the carnival's silence. If he'd wanted money that would have been another thing, but as Clint didn't care about such things it would be no problem if he disappeared for a few days to dry out. He drives to a hotel not too far away from the carnival and checks into a room. He then flops Clint onto the only bed. He doesn't have time to do much more, but he does make sure Clint has a water bottle by his bed for when he wakes up. He then pockets the room keys and leaves headed back for the carnival. He'll come back in a few hours to check on Clint, but right now he'll let the kid sleep it off.

Coulson and Kate park Lola, Coulson's car, in the carnival's parking lot. Coulson then very reluctantly leaves her behind to investigate the carnival. He pays for both of them to get inside, once he's paid he decides to ask the young lady taking tickets about Barney.

"Excuse me miss." He says, catching the young lady's eye. "I was wondering if you could tell me where to find Barney Barton?"

"I could, but he doesn't like strangers." She says dismissively.

"Then it's a good thing my friend and I aren't strangers. I'm an old friend of Barney's father." Phil lies.

Unfortunately it seems the girl knows something about Barney's past. "Then he definitely doesn't want to see you buddy."

"And who are you to decide that?" Kate asks speaking for the first time, a pure ball of sass complete with hands on her hips.

"I'm his girlfriend, if it's anything too you." The girl says sizing up Kate. "And I don't appreciate girls asking to see my boyfriend."

"Whose looking for me?" A gruff voice asks from behind Coulson. Coulson turns to see a man who very much resembles Clint, if Clint had about a hundred more pounds on his body and six inches.

"These two clowns claim they know you." The girl says as the man comes to stand at her side, his arm snaking it's way around her waist.

"I've never met them before in my life." Barney says snuggling his face into his girlfriend's neck. It appears he whispers something in her ear as he bursts into giggles. Barney then looks up to see that they haven't moved. "What do you want?" Barney asks a glare on his face.

"My name is Agent Coulson. Phil Coulson. And this is my associate Agent Kate. We work for the United States Government and we were wondering if you could answer some questions to help us in a missing person case."

"I don't talk to no feds." Barney growls. It seems Barney's demeanor has drawn attention as some other carnival members have gathered behind him.

"I'm not asking you to talk to me as a federal agent, at least not completely. You see I have an invested interest in this case as the missing person happens to be one of my friends. And I'd like to find him. So either you cooperate and answer questions here in a place of your choosing. Or I drag your ass in and we do it on my terms, which I assure you won't be as pleasant." Barney waves off his friends.

"Come with me." He says. Coulson and Kate hurry to follow. His destination however is quite clear, they're headed for the big top. Barney ushers them inside and choices a seat in the bleachers. "Who you looking for?" He asks once Coulson and Kate are situated, pens, tape recorders and paper out ready to take notes. "And why do you think I know him?"

"We've been tasked by our agency to track down Clint Barton." Kate explains. "We happen to know he's your younger brother."

"Why you want to talk to me about Clint? I haven't seen him since he was ten."

"We thought he might have tried to reach out to you these last few months." Phil says cautiously.

"Like I said, I haven't seen him in years. Wouldn't even know what he looks like anymore."

"Were you and Clint ever close?"

"When we were younger." Barney offers up, knowing it will be easier to pull off his lie if he includes some truth. "Our parents died when we were young. Clint was only six. I was fourteen. Not that they were much of parents before they were dead. Anyway, that left Clint and I to face the world by ourselves. We tried foster care for a few months but it didn't go so well…" Barney trails off, not sure if he should share the exact details of what didn't go so well. "Our foster father was a sick man." He decides that the detail may make the agents queasy, but leaves some still for the imagination. "Anyway, Clint couldn't take it. So I made us a plan to run away, stole some provisions and money. We hit the road, took a train and found this Carnival. I managed to get a job for myself as a stage hand in exchange for food and a place to stay for both of us. We stayed close for a while, but then Carson took a liking to Clint. Older men tended to do that, only this time I didn't do anything to help him. I liked it here and didn't want to mess things up. If it had lasted too long I probably would have interfered but it didn't last long. Still it messed Clint up a bit. Some of the older members took pity on him, started teaching him tricks. He threw his heart into it, got good and got himself his own act. That was the final straw. Clint and I couldn't be in the same area of the carnival without coming to blows. He was always scrappy, wasn't really a fair fight. One day..." Barney lets the remorse he feels for his actions toward his younger brother slip into his voice. "he was around eight. He said something, he always was a sarcastic little shit and it really dug at me. I hit him, way harder then a should have. He dropped like a dead weight into a tent stake. Was knocked out for days. When he woke up he couldn't hear hardly at all. After that he stuck around for awhile, but I never saw him unless he was preforming. Then one day around his tenth birthday, my friend Jaques told me he'd gone and left the carnival. Haven't heard from him since. He could have died five years ago and I wouldn't have known it."

Phil speaks but his mind is still reeling trying to process Barney's story which is the most information he's ever gotten on Clint's past. "He's not dead. At least as of four months ago, he wasn't. You've been very helpful today. I have just one more question. Is there anywhere at all you think Clint might have went? Any place he has a special connection too?"

"We were born in Iowa, for some reason Clint always loved it in our home state. Nearly shit himself anytime I told him we were headed there with the carnival. I'd check around there."

"Thank you, Mr. Barton. Give us a call if you hear from Clint." Kate passes Barney a card as she rises from her seat. She shakes Barney's hand then tows Coulson out of the tent behind her.


	11. Chapter 10

Clint drifts in and out of a haze for what seems like an eternity. Sometimes when he wakes up, the bright light of the television or the lights overhead blind him and he quickly closes his eyes once more, other times he can feel movement around him. He'll startle awake, already reaching for a weapon that isn't there to realize it's only Barney, forcing another glass of water down his throat. Not usually one to loose track of time, it's unnerving that he can't make out it's passing. He however guesses he's been lying still for many days when he finally wakes up for good. The haze of drugs gone, his vision is focused and clear in a way it hasn't been since he left SHIELD. He quickly gets his bearings and finds that he's in a hotel room. The turned down bed beside his own and the running of the shower in the bathroom suggests he's not alone.

"Barney?" Clint calls out only to realize that he doesn't have his hearing aids in. He however feels the shudder of pipes as the water shuts off in the bathroom. He can feel footfalls as the occupant of the shower quickly, Clint assumes, changes into clothes. He then watches for the bathroom door to open, when it does his brother steps out into the room.

"You're finally up." Barney says, Clint reads his lips.

"Hearing aids?" Clint asks assuming Barney will know where they are.

"They must be back in the trailer." Barney speaks slow so Clint can read his lips, as he once did when Clint first lost his hearing on the few occasions the two got along. "We can head back now that you're all dried out." He adds, throwing his few possessions into a bag. Barney exits out of the hotel room, Clint looks around for any of his own possessions but finding none, he follows his brother out to the car.

The first thing Clint does once he's back at the carnival is get his hearing aids. Barney splits off to the big tent, most likely having to work. Clint finds his hearing aids stashed in a box labeled in Jaques handwriting as _Clint's shit_. Once he's got his hearing aids, he grabs his bow and heads out to Main Tent. He doesn't want to appear as if he's still not sober. And the best way to do that is to socialize.

He finds Barney in the main tent with some of the other stage hands preforming maintenance on the tent poles. Not wanting to interfere, he sets up a target and begins practicing. He hasn't shot as much as he normally does and his aim is slightly off. He works until it's back to normal.

"Dried up, finally?" Jaques comes over to Clint once he's stopped shooting and clasps him on the back.

"Barney never told me, how long was I out?"

"About a week, we changed location while you were out and you didn't even notice. Whatever it was you were on, I think it was laced with something else?"

"Shouldn't have kept me out that long." Clint mumbles, thinking back to the drugs.

"Barney might have sedated you to with a couple of tranquilizers to prevent you from trying to rip his eyes out of his sockets, but you get the point. It took a long time for you to detox."

"Where are we now?" Clint asks referring to where the carnival is currently parked at.

"Arizona, not far out of Phoenix." Barney joins the conversation. "Someone came looking for you about a week ago. A suit and some girl agent younger then myself. Who are they?"

"I told you people would be after me." Clint looks to the ground shading his eyes.

"They dangerous?" Barney wants to know.

"Probably not, at least they aren't if you gave them what they want. They work for a secret world security program, if you didn't give them a reason to shoot they shouldn't."

"Why they looking for you?"

"I've told you, I used to work for them."

"You weren't bluffing?"

"No."

"Well, I told them I hadn't seen you for years. Since they're not here, I'm guessing they bought it. But I'd keep an eye out, in case they come back."

"Thanks Barney."

It's not even a week after his forced detox, that Clint slips back onto drugs. He can't sleep without them, and he can't focus without sleep. Which would be highly dangerous, as Carson not wanting to waste anymore time had him stealing, doing recon and other illegal activities such as selling drugs, almost immediately after he'd become conscious. At first Barney let's it slide, he wants to give Clint a chance to get better on his own. But after Clint gets into a fist fight with a patron at the carnival and comes home more beat up then when he fell off the trapeze when he was nine, he decides that the carnival isn't the best place for Clint. For he has a hunch that before Clint had come back, he'd never touched any substances. It takes a lot of convincing toward Carson to let Clint go, but Barney eventually makes Carson see his way. Before Barney can put his plan into action, Clint overdoses on opiates. It's not too bad, he comes out of it but it nails the lid in Clint's metaphorical coffin. After Clint regains consciousness, Barney loads him into his car once again and drives to another motel. He then rents Clint a room for three days and places all of Clint's things inside. He even leaves Clint some money. While Clint snores on the bed, drool dripping down his neck, Barney dials the number on the card Agent Kate had given him several weeks earlier. A man answers on the first ring.

"Agent Coulson." The answerer barks into the phone.

"Agent Coulson, it's Barney Barton. You asked me to call you if I came across Clint. He's currently in the Motel 6 just outside of Phoenix Arizona Room 222 second floor. You have three days to come and collect him or I swallow my unease and help him leave. He's in a bad place, I'd hurry if I was you."

"We'll be there in under two hours. Can you guarantee that Agent Barton cannot remove himself from the premises during that time."

"Trust me Agent, he's in no condition to be going anywhere." The line goes dead. Barney gives his brother one last glance over before he leaves Clint on his own once again. He even leaves the door unlocked for the people who will come to collect his little brother. "Good luck Clint." He mumbles as he exits. "Sorry your life's such a shit pile."

"I have Agent Barton's current location." Phil barks at his team the moment he gets off the phone with Barney. "His brother has given us three days to collect him, we're going to do so within the next few hours. Hill fire up the bus, we're headed for Arizona."

"How do we know he'll still be there when we arrive?" Hill begins doing what she's told but not without being slightly mouthy.

"Barney Barton informed me that Clint's not in the best shape right now. He guaranteed me that there is no way Clint can remove himself. I take that to mean he's injured, which means we'll be preforming an emergency extraction. SHIELD medical will meet us there. Let's move people."


	12. Chapter 11

Clint wakes up in SHIELD's medical unit five days later. He know's it belongs to SHIELD because Coulson is sitting in the chair beside his bed when he wakes up.

"You finally managed to find me." Clint croaks attempting humor.

"Only because your brother ratted you out." Phil was always one to believe giving credit where credit was due. "You had us looking for nearly six months without so much as a trace of you."

"I was hiding in plain sight." Clint says flinching as his body protests him sitting up. He tries a second time but when again his arms give out from underneath him he decides to instead use the buttons on the bed to sit up.

"You're in pretty rough shape, looks like someone strung you through a meat grinder."

"Something like that." Clint mumbles. "You going to address the elephant in the room?"

"I feel that if I address one elephant, the others lurking in the corners will stampede. Get better, then we'll talk." Phil rises from his chair and walks to the door. Clint notes that he has to use his key card to exit the room, meaning that SHIELD is intent on keeping him locked in their headquarters.

"Think someone can send me in a sandwich?" Clint calls after Phil.

"I'll see what I can do."

"How long am I going to have to stay here?" Barton asks the nurse when she comes in with his requested sandwich. At first she doesn't answer him, instead going about setting up his food and checking his vitals. "Hello?" He waves his hand in front of her face when she doesn't answer.

"That is currently undetermined, your health was in pretty poor form when you came to us without even factoring in the drug cocktail that was running through your system."

"Don't you have magic pills and liquids to take care of those kinds of things?" Clint asks cocking his trademark grin.

"No, not really. Agent Coulson was however kind enough to request you be put under tranquilizers until the other drugs had left your system."

"Which is why my buzz is gone." Clint smiles again, but unlike usual his grin holds no effect on the nurse.

"Eat your sandwich." The nurse instructs as she leaves the room. "It might help get you out of here."

Clint is released from the hospital wing ten days after arriving. No one signs him out, like they normally would as the order was approved by Fury. Clint hasn't seen Phil since he first woke up five days before, so he decides to try to find the man which proves harder then he originally thought it would be. He eventually finds him after an hour of looking in Conference Room C on the tenth floor of the building complex in a meeting with the director, assistant director and Kate.

"You didn't invite me to the party?" Clint smirks as he walks into the room, normally he'd have spied on the room from above but he really wants to talk to Phil.

"You didn't get my message?" Fury asks innocently. "I'll have to yell at my secretary later. But then again your address has changed so much the last few months she probably didn't know where to send it."

"Your invitation must have been lost under the piles of medications the hospital staff had to give you to stabilize your body?" Phil says a glare directed at his former prodigy.

"In all honesty, they were about to send me to fetch you." Kate offers the one friendly remark toward Clint since he entered the room.

"Yes, we were." Fury confirms, motioning for Clint to take a seat. "Due to your recent disappearance, we've decided that you might need a change of assignment. Until you notify us of a willingness to accept assassination," Clint flinches at the mention of the word. The others pretend not to notice it. "missions, you'll be assigned recon and retrieval missions only. That will require some training, that Agent Coulson and Agent Hill will oversee. If needed once you've started working in the field again, Agent Bishop will assist you in the field. Are these terms you can agree to Agent Barton?"

"How'd you know why I left SHIELD?" Clint asks combing his memories trying to remember disclosing this particular detail.

"You talk in your sleep." Phil supplies, not meeting Clint's eyes.

"Are you willing to return to this program, Agent Barton, or do I need to set up a foster home?" Fury asks, looking to Clint directly.

"Sure, whatever. I don't do any better in the real world."

"Agent Barton, you're going to have to prove yourself to me." Fury levels Clint with a glare.

"Like I said, whatever." Clint takes his leave from the room, and heads towards Phil's apartments.


	13. Chapter 12

"You want me to take dance lessons?" Clint stares at Phil in disbelief as the man hands him a tux.

"Yes, they're required for some of the covers you may have to undergo. All socialites know how to dance."

"I highly doubt that."

"Well, we're not taking chances and allowing a cover to be blown. You'll report to the lessons with Agent Bishop.

"Now that's really rich."

"It's not up for discussion Clint." He presses the tux into the young man's hands then pushes past to go back to work. "The tux isn't required for the first lesson, but I recommend it for afterwards. You'll make a better impression. Agent Bishop will pick you at 18:00 hours."

"You clean up nice." Kate signs to Clint when he open's Phil's apartment door.

"You too." Clint signs back sincerely despite his ill feelings toward their task. Kate really does look nice, her midnight black hair contrasting and highlighting her features compared to her blood red dress. Clint rarely notices the woman that worked around him, but tonight Kate looks genuinely beautiful. And unlike most of the agents at SHIELD she wasn't much older then himself, nineteen to his now sixteen. "Coulson got me this to give to you." Clint says handing over a corsage to match her dress.

"Hill gave me this." Kate says handing over a boutonniere, which after watching Barton's clueless face she expertly pins to his lapel.

"Where are we going anyway?" Clint asks as he slides the corsage onto Kate's wrist.

"Dance class at some prestigious studio, then because we both dressed up, a party to show off our new skills."

"And what if I don't have any new skills?"

"Then I'll lead." Kate takes his arm and leads him past various gaping agents toward the elevator where a limo is waiting for them downstairs.

"So we're on a mission?" Clint asks raising an eyebrow when the driver of the car hands him a folder full of information on an alias.

"Not really." Kate says as Clint helps her into the car. "More of giving our alias' life. No real objective tonight other then to have fun and build our alias' an identity."

"Seems like SHIELD has already built one." Clint says flipping through the information.

"Now we make it come true." Kate says reading her own file, the two fall into silence as they learn more about themselves.

"I thought you said you're a bad dancer?" Kate is surprised when Barton takes the lead during their lesson, already knowing the moves the instructor had been about to teach them.

"Never said that." Clint says, his body flowing with the music as he leads Kate in a simple waltz. "I just said I didn't want to come to a dance class."

"You two are so cute." A lady from an older couple coos at them, while her own partner struggles to keep up with her. "You keep him in line sweetie." She directs her comment toward Kate before she returns her focus on dancing.

"This is why I didn't want to come." Clint says nodding toward the lady.

"Turn off you hearing aids if they bother you so bad." Kate snaps slightly impatient as she struggles to keep up with Clint's fast pace.

"Am I showing you up?" Clint cocks an eyebrow, and starts to laugh only to quickly turn that laugh into a hiss when Kate very intentionally stomps on his foot.

"Not at all, sweetheart." Kate throws out a laugh, practicing becoming Samantha Carter, a young well endowed Manhattan socialite that was born into old money and spends it lavishly on fancy things and charity events such as the one they'll be attending later tonight. Samantha Carter also happens to be madly in love with Joseph Adler, Clint's alias. Joseph is an even younger, slightly wild wolf of Wall Street that while he comes from old money, looks to gain a new fortune separate from his ancestors. So far, at only nineteen he's started down a promising path that has caused his family to move up from the very rich category to the filthy rich classification.

"You know darling, I think we should pick this up a pace." Clint says a smile spreading across his face. He very suddenly dips Kate almost to the floor, her long locks cascading down over her back to pool on the floor. His lips meet hers as he pulls her back up and spins them. The other couples in the room politely applaud as they break apart. Clint watches Kate's eyes and sees a haze he doesn't recognize clouding them before she quickly recomposes herself.

"It looks like you two should move onto my more advanced class." The instructor says coming over. "For now, darling, would you mind stepping out so I can teach your partner a more advanced style of waltz." Kate nods politely and sits down at one of the tables, the rest of the class following suit. They all watch as the instructor teaches Clint a complex waltz with many dips, turns and lifts. Kate watches in awe as Barton flawlessly executes the dance. When their instructor releases her date once more, she asks him about it.

"Where did you learn to dance?"

"What do you mean? We're at class right now aren't' we?" Barton asks as he lifts her into the air while spinning.

"I mean, Coulson and I had twenty bucks on you landing on your face just trying to do the basic step."

"Who had money on me doing well?"

"Fury and Agent Hill."

"I learned all around the world. Socialites like small boys in tuxedos, and none ever expect them to be an assassin. I learned to waltz in England."

"Who taught you?"

"The Queen." Barton says with a shrug. "Well she instructed a maid who was my dance partner."

"You've met the Queen of England? SHIELD has no file of that."

"SHIELD has almost no files on anything I did before I came to them."

"Why were you there?"

"That was oddly, a recon assignment that someone hired me out to do."

"What other dances do you know?"

"I can tango, salsa, Irish step..."

"You can Irish Step." Kate lets off a loud laugh.

"Can't you?" Clint asks a sly grin on his face.

"No not even a little. And you're telling me you learned all of this while on jobs?"

"Well a lot of it was in between, like the step dancing. I happened to stumble upon a festival while Scotland and well you pick up on things."

"You're going to show me that someday." Kate vows, curtsying to Clint when the music signals the end of the dance. The instructor announces the end of class, and everyone begins getting ready to leave. Several of the couples come over to remark on Clint's obvious dancing ability. Clint takes the attention in stride as his alias Joseph would but Kate knows he secretly hates it. She can feel him relax when he finally manages to lead her to the car.

"We have an hour to kill before the banquet, what do you want to do?" Clint asks glancing at his watch as they climb into the limo.

"I'm not sure. What would Samantha and Joseph do?"

"Well, we're from Manhattan right?" Kate nods. "And we're in DC." Kate nods again. "Have we ever been to DC?"

"I have many times. My father is a friend of the president." Kate says recalling a detail from her file.

"And mine knows ever Senator and cabinet member on a first name basis." Clint recites from memory.

"So we're not going sight seeing." Kate says ruling the idea off of her list.

"Ironic as the most I've seen of the city are the Starbucks and SHIELD, everything else has been through the window of a car."

"Really?" Kate asks realizing for the first time how odd it was that Barton was so close to three of the top level security members of SHIELD. Fury and Hill ran SHIELD, and Coulson was Fury's go to man. Barton must be something special, she realizes for him to be so close and on such a short leash with all three of them. Herself she'd only ever really talked with Hill before she'd been assigned to be with Barton, now she knew all three better, but she still is no where near as close to them as Barton is.

"I feel like Samantha and Joseph would do something ostentatious and very very public." Kate says remembering the written in wild streak of Clint's alias. Her own alias had also supposedly done some pretty insane things as well.

"What's the party we're going to again?" Barton asks looking over Kate's dress once more he realizes it's very formal attire.

"A charity ball for Maria Stark's old charity."

"Didn't Maria Stark die?"

"Her son kept it running once she passed away. He doesn't have any part of it really but he made sure to hire someone to run it. The ball is a huge event. I'm actually surprised SHIELD had enough pull to get us invites. It's hosted once a year, and Anthony Stark always makes an appearance.

"Where's it being held?" Clint asks, not privy to such details.

"The Smithsonian." Kate says nonchalantly.

"I didn't know they hosted such events."

"They do for a Stark." Kate says a slight awe to her voice.

"The Smithsonian overlooks the Reflection Pool right?"

"Right? Where you going with this Barton?"

"How do you feel about getting engaged?"

An hour later everything was in place for Barton's big plan. Kate still wasn't sure why she was going along with it, but at this point she was having fun. As her limo pulls up to the Smithsonian, she sees Tony Stark greeting all his guests along with his assistant Virginia Potts. If Clint follows through with his plan, she knows they'll steal the spotlight for the entire night. The driver pulls up to the front of the line by the steps of the Smithsonian, he then carefully helps her out of the car. As she starts up the steps, invitation in hand, she hears the music start up. She was still unclear on how exactly Clint had convinced the Navy Band to play for her on such short notice but she was incredibly impressed as the opening notes rang out, the musicians marching proudly from all surrounding areas. The other guests all turn to stare as well. She proudly notes that even Tony Stark is taking notice. The band completes their song, some old ballad that Clint had known. The band then lines up to make way for a large group of chorus members who emerge from the shadows and begin singing while a guitar plucks out the melody. When Clint had asked her what she wanted the musicians to play she knew he hadn't been expecting her to say I Don't Dance by Lee Bryce, but it's her favorite song and she'd always privately hoped that some boy would someday sing the words to her. She puts on the perfect look of surprise as halfway through the song Clint parachutes down, roses, chocolates and a ring stashed in his pocket with him. He quickly disconnects himself from the parachute. By now, everyone inside, informed by Ms. Potts have come outside to watch Clint. He walks forward, pulls her into his arms and dips her like he did in dance class, he places a passionate kiss on her lips. Only this time when he pulls away he doesn't help her back up, instead he leaves her tilted back. His voice is miked like the singers.

"Samantha Carter..." Clint starts in on his speech. "From the day we met first met four years ago, in this very spot at this very ball, I've thought you're the most beautiful girl I've ever met. That day we met we were both here with our parents, and we both thought it was the ostentatious and dull. We found common ground from that, so I kept you entertained by asking you to dance. Somehow I was lucky enough to be your dance partner all night, even when the band took a break we stayed on the floor dancing to imaginary music playing in our heads. You didn't know it, but that was the night I fell completely and desperately in love with you." Clint pretends to need a deep breath of air, as if recalling the memory and not just making it up on the spot. "Before I could ask you out, you saved me the embarrassment by telling me you already had a boyfriend. Some guy your dad hated and your mother loved. So instead of asking you out, I asked to be friends." He slowly pulls her up to her feet. The ball's various esteemed guests have now gathered around them, many of them filming the interaction. Others gaze at their own dates in either awe or envy. "We hung out almost weekly. I was the one you complained to when your friends weren't nice. I was the shoulder you cried on when your boyfriend dumped you for your best friend. I was the one who then egged both their houses." Clint chuckles as if at the memory. "You were so upset, that I did it but at the same time I knew you loved that I had." He brushes a lock of hair out of Kate's eyes stalling for time. "A year passed, and we stayed friends. Then we were back at this stupid ball. Only this time you weren't alone. You'd met another guy. I hated him. Not only because he could be with you and I couldn't, it was because from the moment I met him I knew he wasn't a nice guy. I'm proud to say I was the one who gave him two black eyes for the one he gave you. Yet, you still couldn't see how in love with you I was. You'd think you'd have noticed that the entire time we knew each other I was never with anyone. Then again you've never been very observant. Still I was fine with just being friends since that meant I could still be around you and that was better then not being around you at all. Another year passed, and again I found myself here at this ball. And again you were here with another guy. This time though, you weren't happy. I saw him break your heart. I followed you out to these steps and held you for hours. I held you until my legs went numb and my tux was completely ruined from your tears. I knew my father would be furious later, the suit cost more money then most people's cars but I didn't care a single bit." Clint stares into Kate's eyes. "I think that was the night you finally realized that I felt differently about you then you felt about me. In the early hours of the morning, you left me sitting here on these stairs and refused to speak to me for months. You rejected my phone calls, my texts, even sent me away at your door. At school when I saw you, you looked away. I didn't know what I'd done wrong but I respected your decision. I left you alone, even though it nearly killed me. I left you alone for an entire year, until we were here again at this ball. I didn't want to go alone again, I had no hope of dancing with you. You'd made it clear that we weren't friends anymore so I brought a date. I was more then surprised when you didn't. We exchanged polite conversation, but it was as if we were strangers." Clint chuckles huskily finding humor in a forged memory. "But strangers don't kiss the way you kissed me when I went to leave that night. I had come outside by myself. I was going to leave. My date was boring, she was the daughter of one of my father's friends, he loved her and already wanted me to marry her. I barely even liked her, but I knew she was exactly the kind of girl you'd hate. Can you believe that I was trying to make you jealous? It wasn't worth being around her though, so I gave her away to the first guy who asked and she didn't care one bit. I don't know why, but when I walked down the stairs I found you crying. I tried to reason with myself that I should just leave, we were strangers again after all, and strangers don't comfort one another. But I just couldn't do it. I knew that you needed a hug and that no matter what you'd been doing the past year, you wouldn't push me away. I pulled you as close to me as I could. You looked at me with those red eyes and my heart broke. I felt guilty for not protecting you, an irrational thought but it was still how I felt. You looked so broken, and maybe I looked broken too because you reached up and kissed me. I'd waited three years for that kiss and it was worth every single minute I'd waited." Clint takes a breath, pulling out the ring box, he doesn't get down on one knee yet. Instead he grabs Kate's hand. A smile spreads across his face as he tells the imaginary tale. "It was like fireworks. I knew you felt something too, but the second you pulled away you ran off into your dad's car. I had been so close to finally telling you how I felt and you slipped through my fingers again. It was christmas before I saw you. You showed up at my house in a sweatshirt of mine that I'd long ago thought I'd lost, your hair was in a messy bun and you didn't have a trace of makeup on. A rare sight for you." He reaches out and cups her face. "I thought a fallen angel had come to my door." He pushes a strand of hair out of Kate's face. She's playing her part perfectly, reacting to his words with a deep blush and an awed smile. "You grabbed me by the back of the neck and pulled yourself to me. That kiss was even better then the first." Clint takes a moment to peck her on the cheek. "Now here we are again, at this huge boring ostentatious ball, and as I'm sure all these people can guess I went and had a stupidly brilliant idea." Clint drops down to one knee and opens the ring box. "Samantha Ann Carter, will you make me the luckiest man on this earth and marry me?" Kate reacts perfectly, a squeal leaves her lips. She grabs Clint by his tie and pulls his mouth up to hers placing a large kiss on his lips. He adds another lavish spin/dip before they break apart. "So is that a yes?" He asks a stupid grin on his face.

"Yes, you idiot. It's a yes." The crowd around them erupts into cheers, as they kiss once more. Tony Stark and Virginia Potts break through the crowd. Tony raising a glass of scotch.

"To the happy couple." The billionaire toasts. "May you both live long and happy lives." He adds throwing back the glass.

"Congratulations." Virginia adds, a smile on her face as she takes in their act. "Now let's all go inside." She begins directing the crowd back inside behind Tony. Kate and Clint keep themselves apart from everyone else, playing their role perfectly until everyone has gone inside.

"So." Kate says a sly smile creeping onto her lips as Clint begins leading her inside. "How'd you come up with that speech?"

"It was in the file."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yeah, it wasn't. I just went with the moment." Clint shrugs. "It wasn't that big a deal."

Kate stops in her tracks, needing Clint to understand something. "That was the single most romantic thing I've ever heard." She says looking Clint in the eyes. "And I felt myself wishing that every word was true."

"I didn't realize you found me so attractive." Clint jokes. Kate however cant' reply as they've now reached the door. Clint hands over both their invitations, not that they really need them. Everyone in Washington DC seems to know who they are currently.

"I still can't believe you did all that for me, Joseph." Kate coos as Clint leads her toward the dance floor. Both pale slightly, almost loosing their composure when on their way there they spot Fury among the crowd. There is no way that he hadn't just seen their performance. Still they continue toward the dance floor.

"Believe it Mrs. Adler." Clint says slightly louder then necessary so others around them will hear him. He pulls her close as a waltz is struck up by the string quartet. Other couples stare as Clint leads them expertly around the floor. Much like their alias' had supposedly lost themselves on the dance floor here four years before, Clint and Kate find themselves doing the same. And Clint will never admit it, but he also looses his heart that night.


	14. Chapter 13

"You know, Agents, when I sent you out last night to establish yourselves as members of society, I didn't exactly mean you had to go get engaged." Fury has an out of character amused smile on his face as he looks at the two young adults.

"It made us known, didn't it?" Clint raises an eyebrow, challenging Fury to say that it didn't.

"It definitely did. Soon their won't be a person in the world who hasn't seen the video footage. Tell me Barton did you come up with all of that on the spot?"  
"Yes, sir."

"Your more suited for undercover work then I thought then, it was an amazing performance." Kate agrees, but doesn't say so.

"Thank you, sir." Barton accepts the praise begrudgingly.

"You were excellent as well, Kate. You looked completely swept off of your feet."

"I truly was. When Barton said he wanted to do something shocking, I had no idea of how far he would go."

"Well, you two worked excellently together. And apparently the dance lessons went well as I never saw you two come off of the floor last night. You drew eyes, which was good. You completely stole Stark's show."

"Thank you, sir." Both Agents say in synchronization.

"That will be all. At request of your dance teacher you've both been moved to the advanced class for tonight which is at eight. I expect both of you to attend. Until then, I believe Agent Hill wants to see you Agent Bishop and Coulson would like you to go to the training room Barton." Both agents nod and take their leave. Both pretend as if the other doesn't' exist

"Sir, Agent Barton has said he'll once again accept kill missions." Coulson entires Fury's office a signed document in his hand. He passes the document to the director.

"He and Kate are good together." Fury says referring to the two's field partnership and not an actual relationship. "What's they're closing rate?"

"96% Sir. They're our most effective team."  
"Give them an award." Fury instructs. "Tell Agent Hill I said to do so."

"Will do sir. I thought you had a mission saved aside for Agent Barton..."

"He'll leave tomorrow." Fury says, previously thinking that this was an unspoken assumption. "Agent Kate will not accompany him."

"I'll make that clear, sir."

"I bet you never thought you'd see the day that that was necessary."

"I didn't sir." Coulson nods then takes his leave to go and fine Agent Barton.

"Tell me about Kate." Coulson prompts Clint over dinner later that night. He hasn't told Barton that he'll be leaving in the morning on a solo mission yet, but first he has a personal curiosity he wants to settle. Since Kate and Clint had been assigned as partners on undercover missions, they'd become close. Perhaps even closer then Clint was now to Phil. The agents spent hours and hours together and many in the Agency conspired that something more was going on between the two Agents.

"She's a good person." Clint offers with a shrug. "What do you want to know?"

"When did you two get so close?" It had been over a year since Clint had come back to the Agency after running away and he's now seventeen. Which has made a lot more young agents then just Kate notice him.

"Around the time you forced us to practically spend twenty four hours a day together." Clint says, suddenly a thought pops into his head. "You're not jealous are you?" He asks Phil. Phil can't look Clint in the eyes. If he's truthful with himself he misses the days when he was the only one Clint would confide in. It made him feel important, since getting Clint to trust the Agency had been such a high priority. "Aww, buddy." Clint says not able to keep a slight amount of laughter out of his voice. "Are you worried about being replaced? Cause no one could ever replace you. You're like my dad." It's the first time Clint's ever said something like this to Phil and while he's always suspected it, it feels nice to hear the Clint holds him in such high esteem. "Kate's just… well I don't know, Kate. She gets me. She understands a lot about me. I like hanging out with her."

"You two used to loath one another."

"That was when we didn't know each other well and I wasn't in such a good place." Coulson was still surprised that no one had noticed how much Barton loathed what he did when he first came to the Agency. He was particularly disappointed in himself for not realizing just how much kill missions had effected Barton. It had only truly come apparent when Barton had been switched off such things and been assigned missions with Kate. Perhaps another contributing factor to their closeness, Barton was truly happy most days. The change was such a turn around that he was almost reluctant to allow Barton to once again go on such missions. But he'd been cleared by multiple doctors and had himself consented to once again doing so as long as it wasn't his primary focus.

"Alright, I've got to ask and settle the bet." Phil takes deep breath. "Are you and Agent Bishop romantically involved?" Coulson prepares himself for the fallout of his question, expecting Clint to yell at him but instead Clint laughs. Another change that had slowly happened over the last year, Clint wasn't angry all the time.

"You mean like do we go on dates and stuff? God no. I'm pretty sure that's the last way Kate sees me. I mean yeah, we occasionally make out on missions and stuff for our covers but we've never done it as just Clint and Kate." Clint continues to laugh, but Phil picks up on something. The laughter seems just a little too forced.

"So you wish something was going on." Phil concludes to which Clint has no response. Like always Phil understands him. "When you first start having feelings for her?"

"I never said there were feelings." Clint stands up from the table and heads for his room. For the first time ever, Phil notes the Clint didn't eat an entire pizza. In fact there is still over half of his pie left. Before Clint can shut himself away, Phil calls to him.

"You're leaving in the morning for Germany. Fury is sending you to take out the Black Widow."


	15. Chapter 14

Clint packs his bag early in the morning. The file Phil slipped under his door last night indicates that the mission should last a week, but he's packed to stay away for two. He'd heard of the Black Widow before, everyone in SHIELD had. He had always privately wondered why Fury had yet to neutralize her as a threat, but now he understood. To take out the Widow, Fury knew he'd have to send in the best. Clint is the best assassin SHIELD has. He checks his weapons, placing extra bullets and guns in his bag as well as arrows. His quiver and bow are already strapped to his back ready to be used in a moments notice.

Clint looks at the file one more time to be clear on his mission. It's simple really. All he has to do is neutralize the Widow and he's not to return until he's done so.

Clint flies the helicarrier toward Germany. His partner's absence is obvious, the quiet is unnerving. Clint realizes how dependent he's gotten on Kate's pre-mission banter. To drown out the silence of the aircraft he tunes the radio to to Kate's favorite station. Clint has never been a big music fan due to his deafness but he finds Kate's music bearable. She claims it's something called soft rock and roll. Clint just likes the noise.

He lands the craft at the SHIELD safe house he'll be staying in just outside of Berlin. If SHIELD's intelligence is right, the Widow will strike inside the city within the week. It is his job to determine when and where. He settles in quickly then decides to go into the city. SHIELD has compiled a list of the Widow's aliases, Clint does a search through hotel records for all of them. A hit comes up at the Marriott. Clint makes a note that the Widow is well endowed. He drives to the hotel and after a few minutes manages to convince the desk clerk that he's a newly started room service boy. The desk clerk gets him a uniform. He then goes to the hotel's restaurant and orders a couple different dishes. The food then goes on a cart. He already knows what room the Widow is staying in. He won't take her out here, it's too risky as she'll certainly fight back, but this way he might be able to get a look at who he's tracking. He knocks on her door and calls out room service. Surprisingly, she actually calls back that she'll be right there.

Clint waits patiently for her to open the door. When she does, he's even more surprised. A beautiful young woman stands before him. Her hair is bright red and her features are can only be described as sculpted to perfection. She is the vision of what he believes Aphrodite would look like. Everything about her screams beauty at Clint, yet he notes through all her makeup, she's very young. Younger than himself even. At most he guesses she's fourteen.

"I didn't order any food, I'm sorry." The young woman says her voice accented. If Clint didn't know better he'd have thought she was a native german, but he can tell that the accent is faintly Russian. He can't get too caught up on her voice though because she starts to close the door.

"Wait." He sticks his foot in the door. It's a desperate move and Clint knows it, yet it's effective. "Are you sure? I was told this was to be delivered to a Natalie Rushman." He spits out the alias the room is rented under, thinking that maybe the girl is an accomplice and not the widow herself.

"I'm her, but I didn't order any food. I'm sorry. I hope you find who the food belongs to." This time she succeeds in closing the door. And Clint is left speechless. Natalie Rushman is a known alias of the Black Widow, but he can't believe that she and the girl he just met are the same people. Not knowing what to do, Clint leaves the food and quickly exits the hotel. He knows that if he refuses to take out the Widow, he'll be punished and another agent will be sent. But can he really take out a child? A child who he himself isn't that different from.

Clint follows Natalie Rushman's movements for several days. He has several chances where he could have ended her life, but he doesn't take the shot. His conscious is a wreck. Does this girl really deserve to die when her kill list isn't even close to the size of his own? SHIELD has instructed him to neutralize her as a threat, was there more than one way to do so?

For all the following of her Clint does, it seems that she isn't doing anything significant. He remembers reading in her file that she'd previously been employed by Russia but had recently become a free lance assassin. Again Clint is reminded of himself.

It appears Natalie is sight seeing, something he had often done himself when waiting for a scheduled take down. He'd arrived early to do so, since there was never time after a kill. He'd always thought that since someone else was paying for his trip, he might as well enjoy it.

He's been following Natalie for five days when she finally does something of interest. She invites herself to an elite party. He follows her there then backtracks to get himself situated to be at the event. He goes under his established cover of Joseph Adler. No one even questions his arrival. He watches as Natalie flirts with a man that Clint notes is on SHIELD's own hit list. He's a black market gem fencer, due to his line of work he's made many enemies and has killed almost every single one of them. Clint decides to allow Natalie to take out her target. The man had killed several SHIELD agents, making him a high priority in Clint's book. He socializes but keeps tabs on Natalie. He knows most people at this party, all of them note his wife Samantha's absence. Clint realizes that he's never been at such an event under this particular cover without Kate. He quickly explains away her absence, stating that she's in Los Angeles being the patron of a charity event. He claims to be on business and that his visit is impromptu. He excuses himself for the night when he sees Natalie disappear with her target. He discreetly follows them as they drive to the man's hotel. He waits until Natalie comes back out to make any move on her. But when she does, he notes she's injured and her plan seems to not have gone well since she's fleeing as if she's in trouble. Clint doesn't know what possess him to do so, but he pulls up beside her on the sidewalk. She looks weary of him, every bit the young girl she is.

"You need a ride?" He offers. Vague recognition floods her face.

"You're the room service boy." She says, throwing a glance over her shoulder. Clint notes the five thugs have exited the building and are headed straight for her. She seems to figure her odds aren't good on foot, so she climbs into his car. The moment she's inside Clint tears off down the street his tires squealing. The thugs start shooting at his car trying to take out his car tires, but fortunately they have terrible aim. Clint glances over at his passenger. As her adrenaline starts to settle, she seems to note what a bad decision she has possibly made. He sees her reach to pull her gun, but he pulls his first.

"Leave it." He instructs, ducking down a maze of side streets to make sure no one can follow them.

"Who are you?" The girl asks. He imagines that normally she's quite intimidating, but right now he'd be more intimidated by a two year old. Instead she seems defeated as if accepting whatever happens to her at his hands.

"My name is Clint Barton." He doesn't know what possess him to give out his real name to anyone outside of SHIELD, but it's too late to correct himself. "Agent Clint Barton if you want to get fancy, but I rarely do."

"Agent, you're hardly even an adult." Her accent is now clearly Russian, it makes it harder for him to understand her speech. He knows she has no idea how old he actually is and instead wants to get him rallied up. It would be easier for her to take control of the situation that way.

"Your right." He admits. "I'm seventeen, but I've worked for an agency called SHIELD the last five years of my life."

"What do you want with me?" Natalie asks, knowing exactly what he wants.

"I was sent to kill you." He says nonchalantly.

"So do it." She leans in toward his gun. "Theres no way I can stop you."

"There are plenty of ways." Clint says tightening his grip on his gun. "Who said I was going to follow orders?" He adds shooting the girl a grin.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm not going to kill you. You're a kid, same as me. And I don't kill kids." A plan has slowly formed in Clint's head.

"So what are you going to do with me?" Natalie asks intrigued.

"I'll tell you, but first I want to know something about you. What's your name?"

"I go by many names." The girls says with a sigh, seeing no other way of getting information from the Clint. "The Black Widow, is the name I'm widely known by. But you already know that. I also go by Natalie Rushman, Julia Heart, Jessica George, Mona Radly, but my given name was Natalia, Natalia Romanova."

"As in a descendant of the former Tzar of Russia, Romanova?" Clint asks wanting to clarify for later paperwork. No one had previously known of the Widow's true name.

"Alexei Romanov, the last recognized Tzar of Russia was my grandfather." Natalia explains for reasons she doesn't understand. Something about her captor wants to make her spill her guts.

"I'm going to make you an offer similar to the one I was given when I was first recruited." Clint says thinking carefully as they speed out of Berlin. "Either you come with me, and SHIELD keeps you safe from everyone trying to hunt you down, which we have reason to believe is a long list of people. Or I drop you off at the next gasoline station. You disappear into the night and SHIELD tracks you down again. If you choose that option, I promise next time, I won't hesitate to take your life."

"You wouldn't have a chance to do so." Natalia spits confidently.

"Really?" Clint cocks an eyebrow amused. "Because over the last week I could have ended your life ten times over."

Something about Clint's words ring true to Natalia. She gulps down a breath of air suddenly very glad to be alive. "Are you even in a position to offer me a deal?" She asks while her brain weighs the consequences of both choices.

"Not really, but I can take care of myself and you if need be. If you take my deal, I guarantee, I won't be the one to kill you. I also guarantee I'll take out anyone who tries."

Natalia takes one more minute to consider his offer before coming up with an answer. "Deal." She says. Clint nods. His gun goes away and out instead comes a phone. He dials Phil's number knowing that he'll pick up on the first ring.

"Clint. Good to hear from you." Clint can hear the relief in Phil's voice. He knew that most of SHIELD thought he may never come back from this particular mission.

"I've neutralized the Black Widow threat." Clint says not getting into details on how he did so. "I'll be returning to headquarters within ten hours."

"SHIELD is putting a helicarrier in air as we speak, we'll meet you half way there."

"See you in five hours." Clint snaps his phone shut. He and Natalia travel in silence the rest of the way to the Quinjet Clint left parked a little way out of the city.

"They're going to want you in cuffs." Clint says to Natalia as they prepare to land on the Helicarrier. For the last five hours, the two have fallen into a peaceful coexistence. While Clint flew the jet, Natalia had danced to ballet music despite her hurt leg. Clint had occasionally gotten distracted by the beauty of her movements. The precision with which she executed her dance could only have been learned over years and years of daily practice. He admired practice to the point of perfection. He could see himself easily getting along with Natalia. She doesn't protest as he puts the metal around her wrists. He allows her to keep her hands in front of her for comfort.

"Do they know I'm coming?" She'd been watching Clint over the past few hours much like he'd been watching her and while he'd made several calls she'd never once heard him mention that he was bringing an extra person along with him.

"No." He says a wicked grin spreading across his face. "But that's what makes it fun." He leads her to a seat and straps her in while he prepares their aircraft to land on SHIELD's carrier. Once they've landed on the carrier, agents flock out of the various buildings. Natalia can hear them all cheering Clint Barton's name. Clint ignores them for reasons unknown to Natalia, he focuses only on her. "Ready?" He asks his flight partner. She only nods. He hits the switch to the door and the ramp slowly lowers. He leads her down and onto the flight deck. When they come into sight all noise stops as everyone stares in shock at his redheaded counterpart. Even Kate, who had been running to hug Clint, has stopped dead in her tracks with nothing to say. After a minute the crowd parts revealing the director, assistant director and Agent Coulson. All three are just as dumb struck by Clint's surprise.

"Everyone." Clint says after awhile breaking the uncomfortable silence. "I'd like you to meet Natalia Romanova. She's SHIELD's newest recruit." Before anyone can react to his words, Clint picks Natalia up. Despite her dancing for the last five hours, her leg is still injured and she's hardly able to walk. He has no idea how she had managed to dance on it. He imagines though it's like how he once managed to fire his bow with two fractured arms, out of love and dedication. He hears footsteps follow him as he sets out for the hospital wing, but he doesn't acknowledge the followers until Natalia is safely in an examination room with Clint's own personal doctor. It's only then he turns to face Fury, Hill and Coulson.

"I thought you neutralized the threat." Coulson's voice is very accusatory.

"I did." Clint says standing his ground, he also stands in front of the door blocking anyone from getting to Natalia. "She wants to be apart of the organization. I offered her the same deal I was offered when I was recruited."

"You weren't in a position to make that deal. Your situation was special, you were a mislead child." Hill yells.

Only Fury understands why Clint made the deal. "And so is she, Agent Hill. Agent Barton, how old is she?"

"Fourteen, sir." Barton replies. Hill's jaw goes slack with the argument she was about to make.

"How was she injured?"

"She was unsuccessful with detaining her target."

Fury nods. "Allow her to receive all needed medical. Afterwards, I'll meet with her and determine if she's eligible to work for us." Both Hill and Coulson look as if they want to argue with Fury but neither dare. Fury begins walking off, he's almost down the hallway when he turns around. "Barton this doesn't mean you're not in trouble. You still brought a potential threat to a SHIELD base with absolutely no warning or permission. You'll face disciplinary action, but that action will not be taken out on the girl." Barton nods, fully ready to accept any punishment Fury may try to enforce. He doesn't mind, he couldn't have killed Natalia anymore then he could have killed Coulson or Kate. He doesn't know why besides her age, but he just couldn't.


	16. Chapter 15

Natalia watches the white walls once the doctor leaves. He had worked quickly and professionally, only asking questions that pertained to his work. He'd wrapped up her foot assuring her that it was a severe sprain and nothing else. With his assurance came the instructions to stay off of it for two weeks. He'd given her crutches to use once Clint's friends decided to release her from the room. She doesn't mind the room, or the solitude. The doctor's been gone for almost a half of a day when someone comes into the room. It's only a nurse bringing her food. She accepts it gratefully and eats it quickly. Then she waits once more, knowing that somewhere someone is watching her every move.

Clint is the one who collects Natalia several days later. The only other people who have been in to see her have been doctors and nurses all with a militia of questions most of which she hadn't had answers for, so she's relieved to see a familiar face sans clipboard.

"Want to get out of this place?" He'd given her a cocky grin. He didn't have to ask her twice, within seconds she had been on her crutches and following him down the hallway. As they passed various areas of the building, Clint had talked about them. She'd listened politely, not that she had been interested.

"This is where you'll be staying." Clint unlocks the door to his old single in the training section of the building. He'd cleared it out completely only a few hours earlier for it to be prepared for Natalia, Fury had agreed it'd be best for Natalia to have her own room until she was removed from probation, which he'd determined would last six months, during which Clint would be directly responsible for all of her actions. "There are clothes and things in all the drawers, the bathroom is that door next to the closet. Food is in the mess hall down the hallway, training room is across the hall. You'll start as soon as your ankle is healed."

"Did you get in trouble for bringing me here?" The question had been poking the back of her mind for her days of solitude. She had been afraid he would be, and that she would never see him again.

"Yeah, lot's of it. But don't worry about me. Just make sure you make it worth it." Clint had then tossed the key at her and turned to leave, before he was completely gone, he turned back. "Dinner is in an hour, you're welcome to sit with me and my friend Kate." With that he had bounced off down the hallway on the balls of his feet, to where Natalia had no idea.

"You know," Over the few days they've known each other, Clint has noticed that Natalia flinches every time he calls her by her first name. "you don't have to go by Natalia. SHIELD allows you to be called by whatever name you wish."

"You think I dislike my name?" Natalia hadn't realized that she was showing any emotion at all when Clint spoke her name.

"I know you dislike your name." Clint says confidently, staring Natalia down. "You don't have to change it, but I thought you might like too."

"Call me Natasha. All my friends call me Natasha."

"Last name?"

"Romanoff. Natasha Romanoff." The name rolls off of Natalia's tongue as if it were her birth given name.

"Alright, Natasha Romanoff. You report to training first thing tomorrow morning."


	17. Chapter 16

"You're spending an awful lot of time with Natalia." Kate practically spits the name at Clint. They're currently eating dinner in Kate's apartment and for some reason the conversation has turned to Kate bitching at him.

"I'm training her and her name is Natasha." This is true, Clint is the only agent in the same league as Natasha when it came to hand to hand combat, which made him automatically her teacher. Not that Fury would be requiring her to be in training much longer.

"I notice the way you look at her."

"Why does it matter to you how I look at her?"

"Because we're partners, and if your mind is on her and not the missions that matters to me."

"Don't worry about it Kate. Even if I am looking at Natasha, I know how to keep my emotions in check."

"Really, because I remember a year back when you almost..."

"What, Kate, I almost what? Just say it."

"Killed yourself, Clint. You almost killed yourself because you couldn't sort out your feelings."

Clint growls, and stands up from the table not wanting the conversation to come to blows which is where it's currently headed. "You know what, I'm not hungry anymore. Night Kate. Thanks for the meal." Clint slams the door behind him. His muscles are still tense, he needs to blow off some of his sudden anger. He storms off down the hallway toward Phil's office. He knows just the way to feel better.

Ten minutes later, Clint leaves SHIELD on a solo mission. Phil had reluctantly assigned him to an arrest, only after Clint had mad some not so mild threats. Clint signs an SUV out of garage. It's his personal vehicle, not that he drives it often. He doesn't like cars much. He checks the glovebox for his badges and id as he pulls out of the garage, both are there so he closes the compartment back up. The mission is below Clint's pay grade and security clearance but he always has the most fun on them. He drives to the location Coulson had gave him, an old storage facility. Supposedly it's the head of large illegal drug operation, not normally SHIELD's MO, but they occasionally do favors for the FBI, which this mission falls under. Clint checks his rearview mirror, several cars pull in behind him, all FBI. Clint grabs his badge out of the glove compartment and hangs it around his neck. He then gets out of his car. His bow is strapped to his back, but he has guns strapped in his holsters if needed. He nods to his backup as they get out of their own vehicles. None of them know him, but they'd all been briefed that he was a loan from another department. He motions for them to stay back. He then advances forward, his bow in his left hand ready to be fired at a moments notice. He knocks on the door, asking for them to open up. He gives the occupants inside a moment to respond when they don't he kicks the door latch breaking it off. He pushes on the now useless door, weapon out he walks through the door. He sees a flash of motion in the back corner of the room. His arrow flies, pinning a man's hand to the wall forcing him to drop the gun he had been about to fire at Clint.

"Where are you buddies?" Clint flicks on the light switch and walks toward the man. The man doesn't answer. Clint smacks him. "Tell me where they are." He yells. The man grins but says nothing. Clint huffs in annoyance, he uses his radio to call in one agent to detain the man. He then decides to keep moving into the building to see if anyone else is there. He goes down the first hallway he comes too and tries all the doors, most are locked. He breaks the locks as he passes and calls in more agents to investigate the rooms. He doesn't stop moving until he sees a light behind one door. Assuming there are armed men behind it, he decides to go in through the vent nearby. He army crawls until he's over the room where several men are speaking and packing. He silently watches as they pack away belongings and drugs. One in particular catches his eye, his target. The only man in the operation SHIELD cares about, Coulson hadn't known for certain if the man was actually involved but now that Clint knows he is, he changes his plan of action. This particular man will have to be brought to SHIELD for interrogation, meaning Clint will have to personally detain him. Clint judges the situation, after a minute he swoops down out of the vent and into the room, like he thought due to the element of surprise he's able to quickly detain most of the men in the room with little fuss. The only man not detained is his man, only by the time Clint gets to him, he's also armed.

"Looks like you're working government again." It's Jaques, Barney's old friend Clint is currently staring at. Jaques had come onto SHIELD's radar shortly after Clint had returned to SHIELD, they'd been gathering information on his movements and had decided he needed to be detained. Clint had a theory that Barney was also involved in Jaques' crimes, but he hadn't shared that information, and if SHIELD believed similarly they hadn't shared either.

"Yeah, not much else I could do when Barney handed me back to them."

"Wasn't much else he could do, he thought you were going to die. Didn't want to have his inaction as the reason. I don't have a clue why, but he cares for you. If you were my little brother I would have killed you the moment our parents died, every man for himself you know. Survival of the fittest and all that. Can't care for yourself, you're too weak to live."

"I never understood why you and Barney got along." Clint adjusts his bow for a kill shot, he knows Jaques will kill him if given the chance, so he can't take chances with only a disabling shot of his own.

"What kind of Agent hunts with a bow and not a gun? Bullets travel faster then arrows." Jaques pulls the trigger of his gun. Clint moves position as his fires his own weapon. Jaques' shot misses, Clint's lands in his thigh right on target. Jaques hisses and goes to pull the arrow out, his gun forgotten on the ground.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, that's piercing your main artery, pull it out and you'll bleed out within a few minutes."

"You little..."

"Save your breath." Clint mumbles, walking over to Jaques he places him in handcuffs. "Barney with you?"

"So the complex goes both ways?"

"Just answer my damn question, Jaques." Before the man can, Clint's question is answered by his older brother bursting through the back door, a knife and a gun in his hands. Barney doesn't look to see who his friend's attacker is, instead he flings the knife on an instinct very similar to Clint's toward Clint. Clint reacts quickly dropping his body to the floor to avoid impalement, he fires his weapon into Barney's gun to take out his second weapon.

"Clint?" Barney's brow furrows as his eyes focus on his younger brother. "What are you…?" Understanding falls over his face. "Let him go, Clint."

"I can't do that, Barney. SHIELD wants to take him in and ask him a few questions."

"I can't allow that." Barney says, his muscles tensing.

"You're going to have to." Barney growls and lunges for Clint, Clint dodges and flings himself up onto Barney's back. With a grunt and much effort he pinches one of Barney's nerves, forcing his brother to drop to the ground, he then delivers a blow to Barney's head just hard enough to knock him out. Once Barney is dispatched, Clint forces Jaques to his feet and leads him out of the room. He locks the door behind them, so the other agents won't stumble upon Barney. He leaves the agents to clean up the scene while he loads Jaques into his car. He locks the handcuffs around a post so he can't move,

Then climbs into the drivers seat. It takes him ten minutes to get to back to SHIELD, once there he leaves the car parked in the garage and checks in with the security guards. Another agent will collect Jaques. He meanwhile goes to his room inside of Coulson's apartment where he locks the door.


	18. Chapter 17

Clint follows Coulson around for several days, no matter what Phil does, Clint is there. There appears to be no reason for it, Phil recalls assigning Barton plenty to do, yet he doesn't do it. Instead he nips at Phil's heels like a puppy, always there, always looking for attention. After the fifth day Phil finally snaps.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" He barks, tired of Barton's eyes bearing a hole in his body.

"Yeah, but I'm not going to do it." Is Clint's only response before he goes back to watching Phil in silence. Phil sighs but doesn't push the subject, Barton with all his quirks always had a reason for doing things and Phil had long ago learned not to push him. So he doesn't point out the long list of things he knows Barton should be doing, no not in that moment. It doesn't however stop him from leaving a list taped to Clint's favorite breakfast cereal and coffee mug the next morning.

Clint refuses to go on any mission with Kate for a solid month and a half, during which he manages to get into a lot of trouble. With no one around to bail him out, he finds himself often taken captive. He'd found he hated cheap metal chairs, and had had all such chairs removed from SHIELD when he'd returned back to base the first time, that however did nothing with keeping him from being handcuffed to metal chairs in the field. He didn't know what it was with criminals and the things but he hated them. All they did was get in the way of escape. They weren't as useful as wooden chairs, which could be broken over a captors head which would lead to escape. No if you tried that move with a metal chair, Clint had learned the hard way that all it did was knock out the man yet you couldn't leave because you were still handcuffed to the damn thing. No, he hated metal chairs.

He also found out that he hadn't medical, which wasn't really a secret beforehand but it was worse now. He was often quite beat up after a mission which meant he needed to be bandaged which meant medical, he doesn't like needles. Medical starts to refuse to treat him, which is fine by Clint but not by Coulson.

When Clint finally goes on a partner mission again, it's with Natasha not Kate. It's Natasha's first mission and it's her only chance to prove to Fury she can do her job, so both Clint and Natasha take it very seriously. He hasn't seen her much since her first week at SHIELD, but still they manage to work together well. Their mission of achieving data from an illegal lab, goes off with no problems or unexpected events. It looks very good on paper. Soon most of Clint's missions are partnered with Natasha, which is fine by Clint as he's the only agent willing to work with her while she's on her probation period. Clint and Natasha grow close, closer than he and Kate are. It's three months after their disastrous dinner when Clint decides to address Kate once more, and then he acts as if nothing had happened between the two of them. They become close once more, but Clint also stays close with Natasha.

Phil begins sending all three on missions together, the first few go on fine but the fifth goes horribly wrong. Clint ends up in the intensive care unit and both Natasha and Kate are put on probation with disciplinary action since it was there fault he got hurt. They had started fighting over the coms unit while preforming the op, Kate had been guiding both Clint and Natasha. Due to their fight, Natasha had went back to find Kate and Kate had stopped guiding Clint. Clint had mistaken her silence for a go ahead and he'd been ambushed. Neither girl had realized how much trouble Clint was in until it was too late to help or perform an extraction. Clint had had to fight his way out of the situation, which had taken him several days of being in captivity while SHIELD had tried to find him. He'd eventually fought his way out, and SHIELD had rescued him, but it had almost cost him his life. Something Phil wasn't forgiving about. With Clint is a practically comatose state, Phil had posted himself outside of the boy's hospital room at DC General's ICU as a guard and had refused to let anyone inside. Clint had come out of it eventually and returned to full health, but due to the failed op the three were no longer allowed to work together. Phil had placed Kate with a different partner, and while she and Clint had remained friends, it was clear she was jealous of Clint's relationship with Natasha which only grew with each op they went on.


	19. Chapter 18

Around his eighteenth birthday, Clint disappears along with Kate for a few days. No one at SHIELD can find him, he won't answer any attempted contact. His absence hadn't been realized at first. Natasha had assumed Clint had been assigned to a solo mission, but when Coulson had denied that theory they began looking for him in all his usual hiding places. It was when they went to look for him with Kate that they found she too was missing. To Coulson that had been even more concerning. The two were just about to launch a full scale investigation when Clint bounds into his office a shit eating grin on his face. Kate follows behind a disapproving smile on her face as Clint proudly pulls out a set of keys.

"Guess what I just bought." He waves the keys in Natasha's face.

"A car?" Coulson plays along having learned long ago it is much easier to do so.

Clint shakes his head. Coulson isn't surprised, Clint hates driving land vehicles.

"A plane?" Of the two guesses Natasha's is more plausible.

"Try a house." Kate breaks up the game, wanting the others to be as disapproving as she is.

"You bought a house?" Phil is confused as Clint has never lived anywhere but in Phil's apartment since coming to SHIELD, nor has he expressed interest in living elsewhere.

"It's more than a house, its a farm." Clint has a whimsical look in his eyes as he talks about his latest purchase. He pulls out his camera and tosses it to Natasha so she can see the pictures.

"You're going to be a farmer?" This Coulson really can't believe. As long as he's known Clint he's never expressed interest in growing anything but coffee.

"Yup."

"Tell them where the house is." Kate insists taking a seat at Coulson's desk.

"Iowa." Clint says proudly. Natasha who has seen the pictures now, is about as impressed as Kate.

"I'm assuming you've seen this place in person." Natasha address Kate directly for the first time almost nine months.

"Yeah, Clint didn't tell me where we were going. He practically kidnapped me. Apparently he's been house hunting for awhile. He wanted me to see it before he signed the final papers."

"And what did you think of it?"

"I think it's a dump." Kate says bluntly. Clint has already heard her opinion on the matter and had a similar opinion on it's current condition. Only where Kate had seen a dump, he'd seen a diamond in the rough.

"I agree it needs work. And I'm willing to work on it in my time off. You guys are the ones that are always saying I need a hobby."

"A house isn't a hobby." Phil tries to argue.

"Sure it is. It's just a large one. Look it won't interfere with work. I'll only stay there when I'm off duty. And you all are welcome there anytime."

Phil looks at the picture of the kitchen and cringes. "Put some work into it and maybe I'll stop by eventually."

"That reminds me, my farm stays off the record. I don't want SHIELD knowing it's location."

"You'll have to take that up with Fury."  
"I already have, he said it was fine. I was just informing you of the matter."

"Fine by me, just don't invite me over for dinner until you have cable hooked up so I can watch Super Nanny."


	20. Chapter 19

"Clint." Natasha sounds desperate over the static filled coms system. Clint groans in response. He was supposed to be covering Natasha's back right now, but someone had just dropped a bomb on the building he'd been sniping from. He knows that he needs to answer Natasha before she aborts the mission and comes to help him.

"'m fine, Tasha." He manages to croak out. "Continue to the hospital. I got your back." He slowly picks himself up of the ground, taking inventory of broken bones he estimates several of his ribs are broken along with an arm, a ruptured spleen and a fractured arm. Still he pulls out his bow and searches for Natasha. He finds her in the shadows of the hospital, once she's inside it'll be his job to follow her in. But for now all he has to do is kill anyone who tries to stop her. His job is relatively easy, Natasha gets inside the building relatively quick. With a groan, he fires an arrow to create a zip-line. He then shoots down to the hospital, a feat due to his injuries. He lets off words that would make Fury blush when he hits the ground, he fights through the pain though and follows Natasha inside. He knows she's headed for the records room, it's his job to set up the explosives. He drops several in the hallway, they won't go off until Natasha hits the button. He scatters them all around the building, he tries not to think of the casualties the bombs will cause, he reminds himself that they're necessary, the people in the building are mutants. It's not safe for them to live. He let's Coulson's words play in his brain on repeat but they don't help much. Still it's better then the alternative. He hears the coms unit crackle to life again, he turns up his hearing aids so he can understand Natasha.  
"Clint, I've got what we need, get out." She instructs.

"Roger that." He says heading for the nearest stairwell he runs as fast as he can from the building. He meets Natasha several blocks over on a street corner, when he arrives she presses the buttons to set off the explosives. Clint tries not to look back at the flames that claim the hospital. He tries like hell to ignore the screams of those around them when they go back toward the hospital to make sure their handy work succeeds. He tries to tell himself that he wasn't the reason behind their screams. He tunes in on the sound of sirens, privately praying that the rescue workers will get there in time to save those inside but knowing they won't. He can't however ignore the sound a woman who walks up beside him makes when she sees the hospital burning.

"My babies." She had screamed, running for the flames. Natasha couldn't stop Clint as he ran after her.

"What do you mean?" He asks the woman, dread filling his stomach as the sirens arrive.

"My children, my twins, they're inside." The woman scream. Clint's stomach feels like lead. He begins running for the flames. Babies don't deserve to die, no one had told him that other besides mutants would be inside the hospital. Clint sprints as fast as he can, ignoring and fighting off those who try to stop him as he runs into the flames. He dodges falling debris, he reads the signs and takes off for the stairs. He knows he's acting crazy, but nothing can stop him from trying to save the children. He hears footsteps in the stairwell behind him, he registers Natasha's presence but refuses to acknowledge her, instead he keeps running up.

When he reaches the seventh floor, he has to force the door open. He hears the screams of children calling out for help. He sets his jaw, he dodges a beam as it falls down burning. He begins ushering the children that can walk out of their beds, Natasha helps them into the stairwell. She refuses to meet Clint's eyes as she does so. Once the children that can walk are on their way out with Natasha, Clint helps those that can't. Ignoring his own pain from injuries, he has them hang off of him. Luckily there are only three. That doesn't count the babies though. Clint swears when he sees there is another section of the ward dedicated to infants. Somehow he fights his way to where the babies are screaming. He has the children with him help him back the babies into carriers. They're all older children of around 10 so he straps an infant to each of them. He then takes two himself. The ward now cleared out, he fights his way back toward the stairwell, it's slow going. The air quality has become poor, which only assures Clint he has to get the kids out. For a reason he can only attribute to sheer luck, he manages to carry all of the children out of the hospital, once they're safely outside, he hands them over to the paramedics. The medical personal are so busy with the children they don't notice that he slips away. He finds Natasha among the crowd. They both share a glance before taking off at a sprint down the block, both silently agreeing to never speak of this again.

"You want to go see a movie or something?" Clint is completely taken off guard by Natasha's question. They had been eating dinner in the combat training room in silence. Not an awkward silence but a silence of comfort.

"Uh..." Clint doesn't know how to respond to her question. He and Natasha have never hung out outside of SHIELD, that was normally something he did with Kate. He also isn't sure where he stands with Natasha, they're friends but he sometimes gets a vibe that she wants to be something more. When he doesn't answer right away Natasha does something very unlike her and blushes.

"We don't have too. We just never do anything, you know outside of missions. And Coulson just told me you're kind of a movie nut, plus you mentioned earlier that you wanted to find Kate so you two could do something off base. I just thought maybe..."

"Yes." Clint cuts Natasha's rambling off. "Theres a new one that just hit the box office I've been wanting to see. Do you like cartoons?"

"Uh, sure." Natasha has never seen a movie but she's not about to admit that to Clint.

"Alright, we'll go tomorrow. I'll pick you up at seven." Clint picks himself up off the ground, he takes his empty plate of food with him to the trash. Then he gets back to training, he and Natasha go back into their silent co-existence.

The next day, Clint knocks on Natasha's door at exactly seven. He's wearing a collared shirt and tie with khakis, but his tie is hanging loose and his collar is unbuttoned. Phil had shaken his head when he'd seen Clint so un-put together, but had said nothing. He'd lost that battle one too many times. Natasha is surprised just to see him in anything but his SHIELD issued clothing that she doesn't care. Clint is equally surprised to see Natasha in anything besides her kevlar suit. Instead she's wearing a flowered skirt and a plain white blouse. Her hair is curled and loose, Clint thinks she looks beautiful.

"You look nice." He says taking Natasha's hand. They walk down the hallway together toward the garage. Their appearances are so out of place that other agents stop and stare. They for the most part ignore them. They walk in a comfortable silence, Clint snakes his arm around Natasha's lower back, and she sticks her hand in his back pocket.

When they reach the garage, Natasha signs out her car. She grabs the keys and takes the drivers seat, Clint is grateful. He climbs into the passenger seat and immediately begins messing with the radio. Natasha had never understood why he cared about such things, but whenever they got into a vehicle Clint retuned the radio.

"Why do you do that?" She signs. Unlike Kate, Clint hadn't taught Natasha sign language. She'd learned it on her own, or from watching them, Clint still wasn't sure which. But he liked that she knew the language.

"Do what?" He signs back absentmindedly still messing with the radio.

"Change the radio?" Natasha has to speak now that she's driving.

"I can still hear." He says tapping his hearing aids. "I like music."

"What kind?" She challenges.

"The kind with a lot of bass." He admits not knowing what it's called.

"Here." Natasha takes over the controls using the steering wheel controls, she tunes it to her favorite station, country. "Listen to this." They fall into silence again as they both listen to the music. Clint absentmindedly taps out the drum part on her dashboard. Natasha sways slightly to Tim Mcgraw's drawling voice.

When they get to the movie theater, Clint climbs out of the car first. He quickly runs to the other side of the car and despite Natasha's protests he helps her out of the car. Inside they fight again when Clint pulls his wallet out to pay for their tickets, but he refuses to put it away. He pays extra for special glasses that will show him the subtitles. When Natasha asks about them, he buys two. He buys them both a large popcorn, Natasha a soft drink and himself Sour Patch Kids. They then go into the theater. Natasha choose a seat in the very back of the theater. Clint sits down beside her. Before the movie has even started, he places his arm around her shoulders. She leans her head into his chest. Clint watches the whole movie, Natasha falls asleep halfway through. When the movie is over, Clint wakes her up. She smiles at him sleepily. He half carries her to the car, where he places her in the passenger seat. He drives them back to SHIELD, during the short ride she falls asleep again. He doesn't want to wake her up so he carries her back to her room. Again people stop and stare at them. Clint ignores all but one person's stare.

Once he's put Natasha into her own bed, he goes a few doors down and knocks. A red eyed Kate answers the door, he wipes the tears from her face and pulls her into his chest.

"It wasn't like that Kate." He mutters, walking both of them back into her apartment, he closes the door so the eyes of their peers can't see them.

"It looked like you went on a date with her." Kate moans into his chest. Clint sighs and drags Kate to her couch. He sits down and pulls her into his lap. She sobs into his shirt.

"It was a movie, Kate."

"That's a date, Clint." She says bitingly.

"She fell asleep not even ten minutes into it."

"So?"

"So, I could never really love someone who can't watch a movie without falling asleep."

"You both dressed up."

"We were going out. You know I can't stay here for too long without leaving for a night."

"You could have asked me." Kate wails.

"She asked me, Kate."

"She did?"

"Yeah, she did. I had mentioned wanting to find you earlier yesterday… and well she decided to eliminate you from the equation. We're partners, I couldn't just blow her off."

"You could have. If she didn't like it she could have asked to be reassigned."

"No she couldn't have, and you know that. We work well together. We can both put aside personal differences to get a job done. Coulson wouldn't just reassign her."

"She got you in the divorce by default and that's not fair." Kate moans, digging her hands into Clint's neck. Clint flinches but doesn't force her to let go of him, instead he kisses the side of her head.

"You know that's not true, Kate."

"It is, Clint. I never see you anymore without her. She's like a guard dog."

"You two could just learn to get along."

"That's never going to happen." Kate spits.

"Oh, I think it might one day." He muses. "You know Kate, all these feelings you're having right now are your own fault. You're the one who said there would never be an us. It's your decision."

"It… it was different then." Clint's words are true, he'd once asked her out on a date, and her words had been just that harsh. Clint had taken them to heart and they'd stayed friends ever since.

"No, it wasn't. The only thing different now, is Tasha being around. You're jealous Kate, but that doesn't mean you've changed your mind. I know you Kate, the moment I ruin things with Tasha, you'll walk away too. I'm not going to get hurt like that." He extracts himself from under Kate, prying her hands off of his neck when she refuses to let go. "I'll see you later, Kate." He walks out the door, and tries to ignore her sobs. As he walks down the hallway and other agents stare at him, he decides he needs a break. He goes to the plane locker. He needs a bigger break from SHIELD than just one night. He signs out a Quinjet and programs a course for Iowa.


	21. Chapter 20

When Clint returns to SHIELD again, a week has passed and Natasha has been sent on a solo mission. Which means that he has even more free time on his hands. He tries to bother Phil, but his schedule is packed with meetings, Clint isn't allowed to sit in. He then tries to find Kate, but she's been assigned to the field as well. With nothing better to do, Clint hits the gym. That is until the other Agents kick him out, none wanting to take him on in sparring. Besides Tasha, he was the best Agent in hand to hand combat. The other Agents didn't like to get shown up. So, he whittles away the time doing mundane tasks much below his clearance level for various desk agents while he waits for his friends to return to base. Occasionally, he gets together with other agents and goes to town with them. Phil always declines and invitation to attend. With no one there to keep him in check, after a while the other agents tired of his antics stop inviting him out.

After roughly two weeks of being idle he begs Coulson for almost four hours to assign him to any kind of assignment. For a reason unknown to Clint, Phil refuses. He begins to suspect that he's being punished for taking time off. The ironic thing is, his punishment is more time off.

It's three weeks before Kate returns to the base. Clint practically attacks her when he sees her apartment light on. She hasn't been home more than five minutes when he's at her door with her favorite Chinese takeout, ice cream and movie: The Notebook. All three items were a staple in their hangout/makeup after a fight times. They were a peace offering on Clint's part, yet unlike every time before Kate doesn't immediately allow him into her apartment.

"Where's your guard dog?" She huffs, looking over his shoulder and down the hallway where Natasha's own apartment is.

"Tasha's out on a mission. She's been gone as long as you have. I've been incrediebly bored as no one would give me anything to do. Now are you going to let me in or not? It's date night. I brought Rocky Road." He waves the bag under her nose. Kate snatches it and lets out a grin, her eyes narrowing in on the food and movie.

"Date night, is it?" She raises an eyebrow at his word choice. He puts on a grin when she steps aside and allows him into the apartment. He goes to her kitchen to put away the ice cream and get plates for the Chinese food. Not that Kate would use hers, she prefers to eat right out of the carton.

"Might as well call it something, and since we'll be watching the Notebook, it should be date night. It's the only way my manhood can stay intact."

Kate snorts. "What manhood?" Clint shoots her a playful glare as he begins scooping food onto his plate. She comes up beside him and grabs her carton."General Tso Chicken?" Kate doesn't really have to ask, but she always does.

"What else?" Clint has never seen Kate eat any takeout besides General Tso Chicken. He cringes slightly when Kate ignores her plate. Instead she scoops up her carton, a fork and heads for the living room couch with the movie. Kate is a messy eater, and the more food she has with her, the more likely it is Clint will have to clean it out of the carpet.

"One time you got sesame." She calls over her shoulder as she places the movie in the dvd player.

"A mistake I've promised over and over to never make again." He follows her into the living room and takes up a place on the couch. She sets aside her food and snuggles into his side.

"How did you know I need this?" She asks after the opening movie credits. They've both set aside there food now and he's adjusted himself so she's practically laying on top of him, her head rested on his chest.

"I needed it too." He says stroking the top of her hair. He lays a gentle kiss on the crown of her head. He feels her yawn and chuckles. "If we're watching the Notebook, you're not allowed to fall asleep." He teases, but he continues to stroke her hair. He knows she likes it after a mission, it helps her relax.

"You like it and you know it." She struggles to get the words out through a yawn, but Clint still understands her.

"It's not the worse thing." He admits as Kate slips off into sleep. Once she's in a deep sleep he grabs the remote and switches to cable. He flips through several channels before finding a movie worth watching. He's not very far into it before he too falls asleep.

Early the next morning, Clint is startled awake by the sound of the front door opening. Still not fully awake, he reaches for a pistol he knows Kate keeps strapped to the underside of her coffee table. He cocks the gun and points it toward the door where the intruder stands. He doesn't even have to be awake to know he'll hit his target.

"Put the gun down, Barton." Clint's eyes focus as he blinks back sleep. He half groans. He shouldn't have woken up. Phil is the intruder, and he doesn't look happy at all. His boss' eyes don't miss that Kate is laying on top of him. Clint slowly extracts himself from under her, she miraculously stays asleep. Clint puts the gun in his empty holster. He never did change out of his work clothes the previous night.

"What is it, Phil?" Clint hisses in a whisper as he starts Kate's coffee pot.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Phil hisses pointing toward the couch.

Clint rolls his eyes, in a way that only an eighteen year old boy can. "Relax Phil, we fell asleep watching a movie." Phil relaxes slightly. "What do you want with me at this god awful hour of the morning?" Clint asks pouring himself and Phil a cup of coffee. He knows Kate won't mind as the only reason she has a pot is for when Clint stays over.

"You need to go and get Romanoff. She's been taken and possibly compromised. We're putting together an extraction team, and you're going to lead it."

Clint shoots a longing glance at Kate wishing he can go back to sleep but knowing he can't. "When do we leave?" He asks with a sigh.

"As soon as you finish that cup of coffee." Coulson says as Clint swallows his last sip. The boy sighs and follows the other man out of the apartment. He scratches a quick note to Kate so she'll know where he's gone, not that she'll like it.


	22. Chapter 21

"So," Coulson surprisingly had gotten on the Quinjet with Clint. They're currently in route to Natasha's last known location. Clint is flying the jet as fast as he can, but they both knows it will take time. Phil, noticing how Clint grips the steering mechanisms just a little tighter than usual, his knuckles going white, decides to try to distract him. "You and Kate have gotten close."

"I seem to remember having this conversation before, Phil. Like then, there is nothing between us."

"I wouldn't be so certain about that. You know, while you seem to think you're invisible, you're not. People notice the things you do around SHIELD. Your life is actually quite interesting compared to most of our agents, with you being young and all. Gossip flies, you should have heard the story I heard the other day about you, complete cock and bull but still… I'm getting off track. Anyway, my sources tell me Kate is jealous of Natasha."

Clint's hands flex on the steering wheel. In an effort to avoid a bird, he jerks the jet sideways setting if off center for a moment. Phil assumes it's Clint's way of ending the conversation. So he's surprised when Clint speaks through clenched teeth. "She doesn't like it when I spend time with her." He won't look at his mentor.

"It's not really my business, but I would set things straight with her. If you're not interested in her you should tell her. You're not aren't partners anymore and you probably never will be. Any fallout from a confession wouldn't be harmful to your job. If I'm wrong, and you are interested in Kate, I'd tell Natasha. I've seen the way she looks at you. You're something special to her. You should define how you see her so she doesn't infer falsely. You can reach her in a way no one else can. I wouldn't want that relationship destroyed in the future due to her assuming things under unintended false pretenses."

"You make it sound like I'm some kind of flirt."  
"If you wanted my opinion of you in that department, I'd say you're the next Tony Stark."

"I don't want you opinion."

"I know. You never do."

"I don't want your advice either." Clint cuts off Phil when he goes to speak again, Phil raises his hands in a surrender position. The two fall into silence, Phil goes back to noticing Clint's clenched fists.

When they land, Clint immediately begins gearing up. Coulson silently sets up his surveillance equipment so he can watch the extraction and the team's back. They finish both their tasks in perfect unison. Phil begins to open his mouth to deliver instructions only to be cut off by Clint.

"I'm not waiting for the rest of the team." Clint shakes out his bow and knocks an arrow as he hits the release button for the door.

"Clint, I really think it isn't..."

"I'm going in to get Tasha, I don't need anyone else." Before Coulson can stop him, Clint jumps into a car and drives off the jet. Coulson sighs but doesn't try to stop Clint, knowing a lost cause when he sees one. Instead he goes to the radio to contact the other jet of agents roughly twenty minutes away. "There has been a change of plans..."

"Took you long enough." Natasha smirks when she sees Clint in the mirror on her wrist watch. He's hiding around the corner, arrow ready to fly. Surprisingly, her captors haven't seen him yet. If she had to guess how he got inside unnoticed, her money would be on the air vents. Her captors shoot her confused looks, that quickly turn to horror when Clint lets his first arrow fly, it lodges itself in the largest man's throat. Natasha smirks when he takes out the second man in a similar fashion, his arrow lodging itself through the man's brain via the eye socket. "You going to let me out of these?" Natasha asks when Clint comes around the corner.

"Like you can't get out of them yourself."

"I could, but..." Natasha shrugs, Clint lifts the keys off of one of the dead men's bodies and unlocks the cuffs. Natasha flexes her arms grateful for the freedom.

"Speaking of which, why are you still here?"

"I didn't have an extraction plan. No point in trying to leave."

"So you were just going to twiddle your thumbs until they tried to do something with or to you?"

"Pretty much, I knew SHIELD wouldn't let me sit here too long."

"You put entirely too much faith in an organization you've only been with for a year."

"These people are involved with the Red Room. SHIELD would rather kill every man, woman and child on earth than allow them to get their hands on me again."

"Maybe you put just enough faith in them."

"My faith wasn't with them anyway, it was with you. Now how do you plan on leaving this place?"

"Vents."

"No."

"Then lets use the front door." Clint unstraps two guns, three magazine clips, a knife and Natasha's back up widow bites. He gives all the weapons to her.

Natasha makes note of a loud noise down the hallway as she gears up. She nods toward the door, Clint understands and backs into position. Natasha finishes gearing up then retakes her position in her metal chair. Two men burst through the door, they barely have time to take in their dead comrades before Natasha jumps on one of them, Clint takes out the other with another arrow.

"You good?" Natasha rounds back when Clint doesn't follow her. His eyes focused on the dead man. At her voice his eyes focus once more, and his head snaps away.

"Yeah, I'm good." He grabs his arrow on the way by. "Let's get out of here."

When they arrive back at SHIELD, relatively unharmed, Coulson breathes a sigh of relief. He says relatively, only because of the look on Barton's face. He knows Natasha sees it too, even if she's never experienced it before. Clint is gone from them. He talks like Clint, walks like Clint, and preforms like Clint, but the boy in front of them isn't Clint. He's a shadow of the boy they both care for. After a quick debriefing, Coulson escorts Clint away from the other agents. When he's like this, things can get ugly. He doesn't want the others to see Clint like this. Maria Hill finishes Natasha's debriefing in his place.

"You want some coffee?" Coulson asks when they reach his office. He's already pulled a collection of blankets out from the chest he stashes in the corner of the room. He deposits them on the couch in the back corner behind his desk. Clint shakes his head no. It's the critical factor in Phil realizing just how far gone Clint is. Clint takes up residence on the couch. He buries himself underneath the blankets, so only his head is visible. Phil closes his office door. He then digs around in the filing cabinet by the couch, he pulls out a hoodie and sweatpants for Clint. He gives them to the boy then leaves the room to give him privacy to change. Clint opens the door when he's done then goes back to his spot on the couch. Phil goes about working, while the boy tries to get some sleep. Phil wishes there was more he could do for him. He has to leave the office when Clint starts shivering.

"Hey Clint." Natasha is curled up at Clint's feet on the couch. He had finally managed to fall asleep after a several hours of staring off into space and had only just woken up.

"Tasha." He mumbles, his voice gruff with fatigue. She offers him a cup of coffee that she had made him. He takes it with a mumbled thanks. He sips on it slowly for several minutes, the two perfectly comfortable in silence. Natasha occupies her time with a book. Clint stares off into space. "Tasha." He speaks after a long period of time. So long that his mostly un-drunk coffee is cold. "Where am I?" Tasha looks up in concern, Clint's eyes are clouded. This is how she knows he's not seeing the same place she is.

"You're in Coulson's office." She says, grabbing his hand. Phil had told her that when he came into such fits, touching him was a way to ground him; talking helped too. "On his couch, under a pile of blankets so thick I don't see how you're not sweating. Phil is in a meeting, and will be back later."

He turns his face to look her in the eyes, she shivers under his cold gaze. Within seconds he's on his feet, his eyes still unseeing, his bow in hand. He cocks and arrow and looks at her. His head is cocked to the side. It's evident that he's confused why she doesn't move to defend herself. Natasha remains perfectly still they fall into a stand off; only interrupted after a very long ten minutes when Phil enters the office. Clint's focus shifts from Tasha to Phil. Phil stops dead in his tracks.

"Clint, you're not in danger." Phil says setting the various objects down on his desk in a perfectly calm manner. He walks to be beside Natasha. "We're the good guys." Clint slowly lowers his bow, but he seems unconvinced. Phil walks forward and manages to coax the weapon out of his hand. Unarmed, Clint flees the room. Phil calls off Natasha when she goes to go after him.

"Let him be Natasha. He'll come out of it, but he's got to do it on his own. You can't help him, he's got to beat his own demons."

"Has that worked before?" Natasha has a rare display of emotion, a mix of affection and concern on her face for the boy who just fled the room.

"No, not yet. But I have to believe it will work."

"Maybe you do, but I don't." Natasha leaves the room, Phil lets her go. She'll have to learn on her own that you can't help someone unless they want to be helped. And so far, Phil has seen that Clint wants no such thing.


	23. Chapter 22

"Coulson, I need Barton to do something for me."

"I'm sorry, Director. But Agent Barton is currently on medical leave." Coulson barely looks up from his piles of paperwork to address his boss.

"I haven't seen any accident reports."

"It's not a physical injury, Sir."

"Is he sick?"

"No, Sir." Phil continues to fill out a report for Natasha's latest mission. She'd been sent out on her own to retrieve a file from an aid of SHIELD. It had gone without incident, thankfully, but that didn't mean the transaction could go off file. He glances over at his newest charge, who occupies Clint's usual spot on his sofa. She appears to be sleeping, but he'd put money on her currently listening to them.

"Is he in the infirmary?"

"No, sir."

"Then why is he on medical leave?"

"He needed a mental break." Phil phrases his answer exactly how Clint had originally told it to him when he had asked the boy why he wanted medical leave.

"I didn't sign off on anything."

"Deputy Director Hill did." Phil digs through files to find the one that pertains to Clint's time off. He hands the latest dated paper to the Director. "Everything is in order. Agent Barton will return to the facilities in two weeks time."

"Romanoff." Fury seems to accept the fact that he won't be able to convince Phil to call Barton at his home to bring him back early. "Report to my office, ten minutes." Fury doesn't wait to see if Natasha will respond before he leaves. Five minutes after he's left, Natasha raises from her fake slumber.

"Remind me that needing a mental break is a perfectly good way to get time off next time I decide I need some."

"It's only an excuse if you really need it, Natasha." Phil lectures the redhead, but she's already left his office.

THUNK. Clint's hands ached. He is pretty sure they are bleeding from the wooden axe handle but he keeps cutting. THUNK. With each broken log of wood, a face of someone he has murdered in cold blood flashes in across his mind. The victims are both from SHIELD and from before. He doesn't care what Fury or Phil say, murder is murder, and the faces of your victims never leave you. THUNK. The silent screams etched across the victims faces are the worse part. In the moment he had been able to ignore them, but in his dreams he can hear the sound he didn't then. The sound makes him feel like tearing his skin off. THUNK. He's run out of people. Not a small accomplishment, he's been working for a long time. Yet the nightmares of his past don't stop. Now his father's harsh words and features fill his consciousness. THUNK. His own whimpers that gave him away to his father come back to haunt him. THUNK. He knows his hands were bleeding now, but he can't stop. THUNK. Rage fills every part of his body. THUNK. Rage turned into sadness. THUNK. How had be become a murderer? THUNK. Whose fault was it his innocence had left him at such a young age? THUNK. He could blame Barney. THUNK. But it wasn't really Barney's fault. THUNK. His dad was another possibility. THUNK. Society was too, the system had failed him more than once. THUNK. The axe was starting to slip in his blood soaked hands. THUNK. When did the metaphor become the reality? THUNK.

Clint only stops when he runs out of wood to chop. He'd split almost fifty trees worth of wood in a little under four hours. Once the last log is split, the axe soaked in his own blood falls from his hands. It makes a dull thud when it hits the ground. He can just barely hear it. He looks down at his hands, they've been made raw. The blood comes from broken blisters. It still flows out, but not as steadily now that the constant friction of the axe handle is gone. With a sigh, he looks toward his house. There is still a lot of work to be done.

Clint decides he shouldn't let his wounds get infected. So he goes inside to the kitchen. Thankfully, one of the few problems the house hadn't had was the plumbing. Burning hot water runs from the faucet, Clint cusses and withdraws his hands. He balances the temperature with the cold tap then sticks his hands back under. He scrubs at his hands until the dried blood is all gone. He then wraps his wounds in a dish towel. He digs under the sink and comes out with a first aid kit. Surprisingly it's stocked well, and he's able to find the appropriate bandages to dress his hands with. Once his wounds are taken care of, he goes back to his most recent inside project. Fixing the floors in the upstairs.

Clint whimpers in his sleep. He never screams, though his nightmares certainly give him the right too. In his line of work, making noise while asleep could get him killed. He'd trained himself long ago to be almost silent. Almost was only because even with the threat of death somethings just couldn't be silenced. With a jolt he wakes up. His skin is covered in a cold sweat.

"My god." He mumbles to himself. His hand goes to his head. It's pounding with the beat of his heart. He throws his blanket off his body and sits up. His feet find his slippers. He needs to do something. He needs to shoot. That always takes his mind off of things. He wraps his threadbare bathrobe around his body. It was a hand down from Phil. Phil had given it to him during his first week at SHIELD when he only had SHIELD issued clothing and was broke. Phil had tried to buy him new clothing that would actually fit, but Clint had refused. He had only taken the bathrobe when Phil had bought himself a new one.

Clint makes his way down the stairs in the dark. The lack of light is no challenge for him, his body is used to moving around in such conditions. He almost sees better when it's dark. He grabs his bow out of the front closet, along with enough arrows to take out an army.

The targets are already set up. Various shapes of animals and humans that look like shadows in the night. Like clockwork his limbs begin releasing arrows. With each thud of an arrow hitting it's target, the clenched feeling around Clint's heart gets a little less noticeable. Like always he loses himself in the art of his craft. Arrow after arrow flies to hit it's target. Clint's mind is blissfully blank. He doesn't stop until he runs out of arrows. He glances at his watch, it's almost four am. Not that time matters here. His days and nights are only defined by fatigue. He decides to call it a night, he leaves the arrows to be collected later.

When Clint wanders to the kitchen he finds he's forgotten to stock his cupboards. He must have eaten the last scraps of food he had for dinner. He doesn't even have a sleeve of crackers to eat. Clint looks out the window toward the barn where his car is stashed. He hates to drive cars, but he's really hungry. He thinks back to when Kate and he first came to visit the house. It was the last time he went to town. He strains to remember the stores, he vaguely recalls a grocery store, maybe even a Walmart. He looks at his watch, it's almost six am. He decides that somewhere should be open. He grabs the keys off their hook as he leaves the house, he makes sure to lock the doors behind him.

He drives into the town. The place looks like a ghost town, there are no other cars on the road, no people outside. He follows a series of signs that direct him toward an equally as empty grocery stor. The store, at least has the food on the shelves. He fills a grocery cart of nonperishables. The cashier seems kind of annoyed with his antics but he doesn't really care. He brings his groceries back to his home, only to find that he's not alone.

Natasha is taking up residence at his kitchen table acting fully as if she owns it.

"Hey, Tasha." He says setting the groceries down in front of her, he begins unpacking the bags, farming the food out to various cupboards.

"I put my stuff in the guest bedroom." She says, getting up from her chair she begins helping him put away his things.

"Clean sheets are in the linen closet in your bathroom." He says as if he invited her to come stay with him. "Blanket are there too, it gets chilly at night. I don't have the heat hooked up yet."

"I'm Russian, this slight chill is nothing. Talk to me in the dead of winter, maybe then I'll be cold enough to need heat." Clint chuckles as he puts away the last of the cans.

"I'm making an omelet, would you like one?" He asks pulling out a frying pan from one of the various cupboards. Nat declines like he knew she would, she only ever eats off his plate. She never has her own food. He sautés peppers and onions before adding the egg and cheese batter to the pan. The flavors blend beautifully, Clint splits the large serving of food onto two smaller plates and places one in front of Natasha, she mumbles her thanks and digs in. She's missed Clint's cooking, even if it was a rare occurrence for him to cook, it was more that she missed the option of having him be able to cook for her.

They eat in silence. When Clint is done he goes back upstairs to work on finishing the floors, Natasha does a similar thing, only she unpacks her things. When Clint walks by, he notes that she's better unpacked then he is.

Natasha's presence in the house, makes him feel better, like it always does. Her being there motivates him to do things like cook, eat, sleep and stop doing anything for periods at a time. His time off goes by faster, but he always feels much more rested up then he would have if she hadn't shown up.

Still, it's hard to hide everything. Despite his large dislike of liquor, Nat finds him drunk in the living room after she went to the gym one night.

"Clint?" She approaches him carefully not wanting to set off his defensive instincts.

"What?" He signs, his eyes not focused on her lips, she signs back.

"Is something wrong?"

"Yes." He's surprisingly honest. The raw emotion displayed across his face makes Natasha feel despair. She can't imagine what he's seen that could put that there.

"What's wrong?" She asks sitting down beside him.

"Did you ever have a family, Natasha?"

"Once." She doesn't elaborate, but only because she knows Clint doesn't want her too.

"Me too. They were pieces of shit, but they were all I had." With that, he falls asleep. Natasha tucks a fleece blanket around him to fight off the cold that immediately sets into his bones.

At the end of his few weeks off, he packs up his things once more. Natasha, notices and packs as well.

"Agent Barton is due to return to active duty today, Sir." Coulson pops his head into his boss' office on his way by.

"Does that mean he's going to actually show up?" He challenges.

"Not necessarily." Coulson says. "But Natasha is with him so maybe. What exactly is it you want him to do?"

"Barney was brought into custody about two weeks ago, I want Clint to question him."

"You think that's a good idea?"

"No better options, Barney refuses to speak to anyone else. He's willingly being held until his brother is available to speak to him."

"From what I remember of Barney, that's a red flag behavior. Are you sure Barney doesn't want to harm Clint?"

"He'll be in cuffs, Coulson nothing can happen to Clint. Make sure Clint gets here within the next few days."


	24. Chapter 23

"Clint, glad you're back, you too Nat." Phil stands up from his desk the moment the two spies walk into his room later that day. Clint looks tired, not like he's been on break the last two weeks. He'll address that issue later, it's possible it might just be pilot jet-lag, Clint gets it occasionally when he flies. But right now he was to get Clint to the interrogation room.

"What is it, Coulson?" Clint hasn't even been to his room to drop off his things yet. He drops the duffle to the floor.

"We've got a situation in the interrogation room, Fury would like you to handle."

"My brother?" Clint raises an eyebrow. Shortly before he'd been apprehended, Barney had called Clint's cell phone. Clint had let the information sit in the back of his mind since, but hadn't felt any immediate urge to help him.

"How'd you know?"

"Barney has my cell." Clint shrugs. "He called. I'm surprised he didn't crack by now. Must be a bitch to sit in that room for three weeks."

"You're a..." Phil has no words for Clint.

"Yeah, I know. You coming Nat?" Natasha nods and falls into step behind Clint.

Clint looks through the window of the interrogation room. The glass is one way, so Barney can't see them. The room has been changed from it's normal state, instead of just a table and chairs there is also a bed. The added furniture shows just how long Barney has been there.

"He's been asking for you." Fury walks up behind Clint. Clint's body stiffens despite his senses telling him that his boss was approaching.

"I know." Clint says. He's not sure what Barney wants from him, but he knows whatever it is, he probably doesn't want to do it. "What was he brought in for?"

"He worked on a big intelligence job for Russia a few months back. We've been tracking him ever since, he's got a rap sheet a mile long. It was only a matter of time before he came onto our radar."

"You mean officially."

"Yes, we've been keeping tabs on him since he turned you back over to us."

Clint's face wipes of all emotion at the mention of the time he'd run away from SHIELD. He still wasn't sure if he would have come back if his brother hadn't tipped them off on his location when he couldn't run away.

"What do you want me to ask him about?" Clint needs a direction to go with in the interrogation unless SHIELD wants Barney to control their talking time.

"Whatever you want. Warm him up, get him talking to you. He obviously wants to tell you something. Come out after about an hour and I'll give you a direction to steer the conversation in."

Clint nods and opens the door. When the knob turns, Barney's head snaps to the doorway. When he sees his brother a slight grin spreads across his face.

"I knew if I held out long enough they'd send you in." He stands up and attempts to spread his arms for a hug, only he can't since he's handcuffed to the table. Clint looks at the cuffs, he has a key that will fit them in his pocket. Knowing full well how against protocol the action is, he takes out the key and unlocks the cuffs. He can practically hear Natasha screaming at him in his head. Still he allows his brother to wrap him in a hug.

"I just got back from a leave of absence." He says, motioning for Barney to sit down at the table. His brother does as asked.

"They still have you killing people?" Barney throws the words out so casually that they catch Clint completely off guard. His mind goes completely blank and he's unable to come up with a response. He hadn't realized that he'd told Barney what he does for SHIELD. "I'll take that as a yes." His brother says chuckling. "Surprised they didn't learn from you running the first time that you're too much of a sissy to deal with the consequences. They should have hired Jaques instead of turning him over to his enemies." Once again, Barney sends Clint's mind reeling. It was true that SHIELD had let Jaques go, but Clint hadn't realized why or to who. SHIELD had given Jaques an execution sentence. "He was a killer." Barney studies his younger brother. "You're not."

"Why'd you want to talk to me?" Clint regains his sense of speech.

"Can't I just want to talk to my little brother with no ulterior motive?" Barney asks, when Clint doesn't immediately say yes, he continues speaking. "Yeah, I guess I haven't been that good to you kid."

"That's the understatement of the year." Clint scoffs. He's letting Barney get inside his head. A huge no-no in interrogations but he can't help it. He and Barney have too much bitter history.

"I've had my moments. Now, I need help, Clint."

Clint pretends he didn't hear his brother's request still caught up on their previous conversation. "Like when I needed your help and you turned me over to the people I hid from for over a year? You had no idea why I was hiding from them. What if they had wanted me dead, Barney?"

"They obviously didn't." Barney deadpans.

"You didn't know that."

"I had a hunch, I had met the guy who came looking. He didn't seem like he wanted to harm you."

"And you're a great judge of that?" Clint's anger overcomes him. His face is beet red, his heart pumping adrenaline throughout his body. His fists reach twitch toward his guns. For his part, Barney at least shrinks back from his brother's accusations.

"We've been over this before, Clint." Barney gives off the aurar of being calm, but inside he's shaking. Clint is terrifying when he's angry, even if he is a small little guy. "I didn't know." Barney's own hands shake, but not in anger, instead in grief. They both know what Clint is referencing. Their time at the Boy's Home had been rough, but especially for Clint. The man who ran the home hadn't been the best guy, and while Clint who had only been six stuck up for most of the boys, it had come at a great cost. Barney had found out what the man was doing to Clint, but he hadn't done anything. He wanted Clint to tough it out on his own, that was until the day Clint almost died. That was when Barney had finally protected his brother and ran away with him from the home.

"You knew, you asshole." Clint spits. He doesn't care that Fury, Natasha and Coulson are on the other side of the door. He doesn't care that they don't know about the home, that they don't know what happened to him when he was there. All he wants to do is make sure Barney realizes the pain he caused his brother by not protecting him.

"I didn't." Barney tries to meet Clint's eyes but he can't. When Clint sees this, he goes ballistic. He grabs his own chair and chucks it toward the wall. The metal legs crumple when they hit the steel walls. Both of them stare at the chair in silence. After a minute, Clint whispers, all emotion drained from his voice.

"You can't even look at me. You've never been there for me Barney, so give me one good reason why I should be there for you?"

"You're my brother, Clint. That's why. Like it or not, I'm the only family you've got. And believe it or not, you'll have to forgive me someday. Eventually, maybe, you'll realize that I was just a kid too." Clint has no response to his brother. Before he can come up with one, his radio crackles to life. Fury asks him to leave the room. Clint runs a hand through his hair before he stalks to the door.

When he enters the observation room, he's greeted by five slack jaws. Fury, Hill, Coulson, Nat and Kate have never seen Clint show such emotion, or loose control from anger. Their minds are still reeling from the cryptic conversation between the two brothers. In five minutes of watching, they'd learned more about Clint then they'd ever known. He's still agitated so no one approaches him, even though both Phil and Kate want to give him a hug.

"You need to regain control, Agent Barton." Fury finally says. "You can't go acting like that in an interrogation."

"Then don't send me back in, because that's exactly how he deserves me to act." Clint growls, toppling over a nearby chair. He looks through the glass and sees that Barney is smiling. "The son of a bitch deserves me to kill him." Clint's hand itches toward the door knob, but Natasha stops him from opening the door.

"Not alone." She says, pushing Clint's hand away. Clint doesn't dare challenge her authority knowing full well that out of everyone in the room, she's the only even match for him.

"You want to tell us what you two were talking about in there, Agent?" Hill asks, pulling out a tape recorder for the official record.

"It's not important." Clint says rubbing his hand along the back of his neck. He's starting to calm down again.

"Sounds like it is." Fury says.

"I don't really want it on record." He admits, slumping into a chair.

"It can be off the record." Fury walks to the corner of the room and grabs his coat. "That man has waited a long time to talk to you, he can wait a little bit longer." Kate, Natasha and Coulson all follow Fury's lead, and gather their own things. Maria Hill stays behind to observe Barney, after Clint un-cuffed him, he forgot to put the cuffs back on, which means he can probably escape if he wants.

Fury leads the group to the garage where he selects a vehicle big enough to carry them all. He goes to drive, but Clint steps in his way.

"Thought you didn't like to drive?" Fury's eyebrow inches up his forehead.

"I don't, but I have a place in mind." Fury relinquishes his control and instead climbs into the passenger seat, forcing a much disgruntled Coulson to climb into the back between the two girls.

Clint tears out the garage, setting even his own teeth on edge by his speed. Not wanting to deal with the city traffic he switches on the vehicles police lights. Fury goes to say something but he notices Coulson shaking his head in the rear view mirror. It's not a good idea to lecture Clint while he's driving.

Clint takes a variety of short cuts through the city, looking to get out of the middle of it. Eventually the others become worried when they begin driving past the suburbs and Clint still shows no intention of stopping. Yet, Coulson still tells them all not to say anything.

Clint shuts off the lights when they finally leave the grasps of DC, they drive for another 20 minutes at a more reasonable speed before Clint pulls into a small town. Once they're in the main section of the town, he parallel parks the car. The others, slightly sick from their ride there, immediately evacuate the car. Clint gives them a minute to recollect themselves before he bounds off down the sidewalk.

He's practically leaping down the sidewalk, his movements are incredibly boyish. They follow in meek curiosity, not sure of his destination. They walk for about a mile before Clint slows down, their destination becomes clear. He's brought them to a coffee shop.

"If I may ask, Agent Barton. Why in god's name have you dragged us out to this no name town?" Fury asks.

"This is Dad's place." Kate's eyes fly to Clint's.

"Whose place?" Coulson asks.

"My father's, he owns this coffee shop." Kate's eyes never leave Clint's face. Suddenly her minds slides together the puzzle. "You were the boy who lived in the attic." Clint neither confirms or denies the fact, instead he enters the small coffee house.

An older man runs the counter, when Clint walks into the store, his face lights up.

"Henry." He calls out Clint's code name, while stepping around the counter. "It's been too long." He pulls Clint into a hug that Clint very enthusiastically returns. It's the hug of a father to a son. When they break apart, the old man notices Clint's entourage.

"Kate." The man shows no surprise toward his daughter being with Clint. He pulls her also into a hug. "What brings you all here?" He asks when he pulls apart.

"My friends and I are looking for a place where we can speak in private, while enjoying a nice cup of coffee."

"Of course." The man gestures a staircase tucked in the back corner of the floorspace. "You know the way up. I'll send Maria up behind you with coffee and muffins, on the house." Clint motions for the group to follow him.

"I've never been allowed up this staircase." Kate mutters slightly annoyed by how close Clint is to her father, whom she has never gotten along with.

Clint chuckles at her jealousy as he opens the door at the top of the stairs, exposing a modestly sized party reception room. A large table occupies most of the space, Clint takes a seat the the head of the table. The others scatter themselves around the remaining seats. No one speaks as they hear footsteps coming up the stairs. An elderly woman, the man's wife enters the room carrying a tray loaded down with coffee mugs, pots and muffins. The moment she enters the room, Clint is on his feet and relieving her of the tray.

"I didn't think he'd really send you." He says as he pecks her on the check. "Or else I would have brought the tray up myself."

"My husband is a wise man, he thought I'd like to see you before you left and knew there was no guarantee I would if I wasn't the one to bring you your coffee."

"I have a little more respect for you than that." Clint scolds her, but it's teasingly.

"Mom." Kate shoots Clint a glare for stealing all the attention.

"I didn't forget about you dear, I just so rarely get to see Henry." She strokes Clint's check in a loving motherly way before walking over to her daughter, where she place a kiss on top of her head. "I'll leave you all to whatever it is you're doing up here, Henry, Kate, don't be strangers."

"Nice lady." Phil remarks once Maria has left the room.

"Yes, she's lovely, now Barton would you like to explain why you've brought us here?"

"I thought it'd jog Kate's memory." Clint says, wincing when Kate walks over and slaps him upside the head.

"I've known you for years five years now, and you never thought to mention that you were the boy who my father used to board in the upstairs of our family business?"

"Never came up." He flinches when Kate goes to hit him again, but she seems to think better of it and instead retracts her hand.

"You want to clue the rest of us in?" Natasha's icy voice cuts through the room like glass.

"If Kate'll let me, I'll tell you all everything." He says, eyeing her. After a tension filled ten seconds she goes back to her seat and pours herself a cup of coffee, she then motions for him to go on.

"I'll start with the very beginning." Clint says while fixing himself a cup of coffee as well. "Make yourselves a cup, this stuff is the best stuff in the world." He takes a sip then gets back to his story. "My family were pieces of shit, or at least that's all I remember of them. My mom, wasn't bad when my dad wasn't around but when he was she was worse then him. You see, my dad was large violent man. Barney told me that before he beat us, he beat her. Somewhere along the way though, she smartened up. Stopped doing things to make him angry, so he stopped beating her. Barney and I were kids, always messing up, so he turned the anger he used to have toward her on us. I got the worst of it. Dad wanted tough boys. Boys who no one would ever dare mess with, Barney learned quick to be that kind of boy. He probably always was one, but I couldn't be that cruel. So Dad tried to beat toughness into me, keep in mind, I wasn't even five when he was doing this. Around the time I started school, I had had enough of him. I stopped coming home, I'd live on the streets for days to avoid him. I only would end up going home when Barney, tired of hearing my mother cry, cuss and scream at my dad for driving her baby out of the house, would find me and drag me home by the ear." The only sound in the room besides Clint's voice is the other's breathing. Clint looks around the room, both Fury and Coulson have sympathetic looks on their faces. Natasha like always is a mask of no emotion, and Kate well Kate looks like she might want to kill someone, who, Clint's not sure. "Dad was an alcholic, but more than that he was a drunk driver. Loved to drive when he was drunk, liked the rush it gave him. On nights when I was home and by some miracle hadn't done anything to make him mad, he'd load the entire family into the car and take us for a drive. Most days we were fine, then one day we weren't. Dad bent the car around a telephone pole, Mum died instantly, he died a few months later. Barney and I recovered quickly and were sent to a boys home." At this Clint takes a deep breath, throwing back his entire cup of coffee. This is is deepest secret, he's never admitted it aloud before. "Turns out, the man who ran it was worse than dad. He didn't beat kids, but he did things…" Clint trials off. Phil looks murderous, he knows. "I was his favorite, trouble was I didn't do anything about it cause it meant he left all the other kids alone. For the first year I thought that one day Barney would hear about it and stop him. Then one night, I was beaten up pretty bad, so I left the younger boy's quarters and found Barney. He let me stay with him, but he wasn't surprised about what I told him. He'd known the entire time, yet he didn't do anything. I started running away, couldn't take it anymore, but Social Service always found me and dragged me back. Barney would always let me hide in his room afterwards, but he never tried to help. At least not until the night I showed up in his room half-dead. He surprised me, by getting angry. He said that he'd had enough of the place and that we were leaving. He wrapped me in his blankets, packed my things, packed his own then carried me all the way to the train stop nearly two miles away. We'd been at the orphanage for two years. We took the first train that came as far as we could before we ran out of money, and I was too sick to travel. When we got off the train, Barney saw the sign for a circus that was in town. I rode on his back barely able to stay awake for the entire five mile walk, when we got to the carnival, he applied for a job as a stage hand. Carson, the owner, must have taken pity on us, Barney at the time really wasn't qualified to do the job he was hired for. Still, it gave us a place to stay." Clint pours himself another cup of coffee.

"Carson's wife nursed me back to health, took nearly a month, but she never left my side. She had her own kids and thought what Barney and I had been through was horrible. The other Carnies thought so too. They taught Barney to do tricks, things that made him more useful to Carson, and once I was better they taught me to do tricks as well. They quickly learned I was amazing on a trapeze, and any game I played that involved throwing or shooting, I couldn't loose. Jaques taught me to shoot a bow, then combined it with the trapeze. Soon I was the star of the carnival. That kind of made Barney bitter, but I was still a kid then, only 7. So he didn't do anything about it. Not at first. Then he turned 16 and was introduced to the other side of Carson's Traveling Carnival. Every member was a crook with a speciality that served making Carson large earnings in a not as legal way. Barney became no exception. One night he and Jaques caught me talking to a cop that had come to our door. Neither of them would listen when I said I didn't say anything. They dragged me out behind the circus tent and beat the crap out of me. That would have been fine until Barney hit me so hard in the head that I blacked out and hit my head on a tent stake. That's how I went deaf." Clint pauses and lets his words sink in for a minute before continuing. "Still, I stuck around the carnival, after all I was Carson's star. I made him hundreds of thousands of dollars, I was the headliner, the one act no other circus had. I made us unique. Around the time I turned eight though, I couldn't take the treatment from the other carnies, I thought if I stayed they might accidently kill me. I knew my brother was still behind the brute that wandered the carnival so I invited him to come with me, he refused. But I think it was only because he didn't believe I would really go."

Clint grabs a muffin, which is still warm and begins munching on it.

"I lived off the money I'd made at the carnival for a little while, but I could never stay one place long without the threat of being sent back into Social Service so I moved around a lot. Eventually I ran out of money and had to get a job. Not many places could or would hire an eight year old, I quickly found that hit men were the exception. At first I was a runner, I'd give assignments to my bosses' hire outs. Then one day my boss saw me shooting, the next day I had a new job. I became Hawkeye the assassin, I wasn't even nine. I stuck with the work for awhile, but I was young and it was hard on me. Eventually I took all the money I could get and split." Clint looks at Kate. "That's how I met your dad. I had ran out of money while in this fine town. I couldn't do anything about it, so I decided to find a nice bench to sleep on. Your dad saw me, invited me into his shop and gave me a place to sleep by the oven fire for the night. When I was still there the next day, he asked for my story. I told him a modified version. He bought it and felt sorry for me, he offered me a place to stay with food in exchange for washing dishes. I thought it was a fair deal. I stayed for a year before the hit men came looking for me. They wanted me back in the business, and weren't about to take no for an answer. I didn't want them to harm your family, so I left with them. I traveled the world after that, taking out anyone that someone would hire me to kill. I never missed. And I guess that's how I got onto SHIELD's radar. Coulson found me when I was twelve. And well, you all know the rest of my story."

"How did you not know who Clint was then?" Coulson looks at Kate for answers.

"I never saw him much, Dad kept him at the shop long past when I was allowed to be awake, and they always left long before we ever woke. He didn't really want us to know the boy he allowed to stay in the attic, I guess looking back it was probably at Clint's request."

"I never asked, he just decided." Clint shrugs. "I didn't really care if it meant I got food."

"Why'd you bring us here, again?" Natasha who has been oddly silent throughout Clint's story finally speaks.

"Needed to get as far away from Barney as I could. If I thought you guys would have went with it I would have taken us to my farm, but I didn't think Fury really wanted to go for a ride in a Quinjet."

"You were right, now Barton we've got to get back. Now that you're back from vacation we can only hold your brother for twenty four hours, and I need answers from him before then. You think you can keep your head?"

"If I can't, send Natasha in and see if she can." Clint instructs collecting up their things and leaving cash so that they can leave.


	25. Chapter 24

A/N

Hello Everyone, are you wondering what happened between Barney and Clint? It may seem like I've forgotten about them in this chapter but trust me I haven't, you'll know more about their missing interaction in latter chapters. Just wanted to let you know.

The Author

Clint stares at the brick wall across the alleyway. They'll find him soon, and he can't run. When he fell off the building, he felt his ankle snap. His hearing aids came out, meaning he's not connected to a comms unit anymore, which also means SHIELD can't help him. Coulson will send someone else to finish his job when it's obvious he's gone. He'll be sad about it, but that's his job. No one will send a rescue team. Not for him, they'll know the only way he could have failed is if he's dead. Besides he's not worth it to the world leaders, not when all he is is trouble.

His hand drifts to the bullet in his shoulder, his hand doesn't even touch the wound, yet a flash of blinding hot pain floods to the spot. There is definitely nerve damage there. If by some miracle, SHIELD does find him, they'll have a job patching him back up.

He sees a shadow form at the end of the alley. One thing about having severe hearing loss, is that it sharpens his other senses. Had his eyes not seen the shadow, his body would have sensed the movement even at such far a distance. Not knowing if the caster of the shadow is a threat or not, Clint does the only thing he can do, he prepares to fight. He stumbles to his feet, much less graceful than normal and that's saying a lot, as he once tripped over an air current. His ankle almost immediately gives out forcing him to lean on the wall for support. Normally his lack of ability to stand would matter, but he doesn't have his bow on him. He left it at the safe house. Still, he's not completely helpless. With great effort he manages to make his arms move enough to grab the gun off the holster on his hip. It's not ideal by any means. While he can fire the pistol if needed, he hates doing so and it takes him much longer to sight and calculate it than his bow. Still it's something since he can't engage in hand to hand combat his normal back up plan.

As he tries to sight the gun, he realizes that not even his eyesight escaped the fall. He must have hit his head pretty hard because everything looks blurred, and any sudden movement sends his vision to black. A concussion is just what he needs in a situation like this. Still, he manages to steady himself against the wall, weapon aimed at his potential attacker's heart. The unidentified person continues to approach, but they use the shadows to hide their face, making it hard for Clint to make an ID on them.

"Fine day for a walk, isn't it." The person speaks SHIELD's code sentence, but Clint can't understand him, nor is the man close enough for Clint to read his lips. So, Clint doesn't relax like the man expects him too, instead he tenses his body getting ready to react should the man come too close. The man notices this and stops in his tracks.

"Clint." He steps more into the light, realizing that Barton can't hear. "It's me."

Clint's vision swims as he tries to focus his eyes on the man's face. Despite his best efforts to stay upright, his vision becomes spotted with black and his legs drop from underneath him. He falls into a heap on the ground. Still he manages to fight off the black spots, he feels the other man approach him, and his hand tightens on the trigger of his gun. He feels the other man touch him, and he's about fire the gun into the other man's forehead when he finally recognizes the man. It's Phil. Instantly the gun falls from his hand, clattering to the ground. Coulson quickly switches on the safety before holstering it.

"Come on, Clint." He says, wrapping the younger man's arm around his shoulders, this way he is able to hoist Clint to his feet. "Let's go home." Mostly dragging Clint, Phil manages to get him into his car. The moment Clint is in the car, he passes out. Coulson concerned radios the helicarrier, requesting that they prepare medical, in the meantime he speeds outside of the city to where the Quinjet is parked.

When they arrive at helicarrier, Hill immediately sets a course for the nearest SHIELD hospital, as she tells Coulson he should have originally done. Barton is in bad shape, he's unresponsive and his vitals are dropping. The doctors are genuinely concerned they might loose him. Before he had escaped, he'd obviously endured some kind of chemical/poison treatment, the head doctor says it's a miracle he was ever able to have enough strength to move, yet alone mount a full on self extraction.

Phil stays watching over Barton the entire time, he's not allowed in the medical room. Not until the doctors know what is wrong with him, so he watches from the viewing window. Phil had despite, Fury's direct orders, convinced Hill to help him pull Barton out of Thailand. No one had believed Barton could still be alive after he missed his window of return. That fear had been changed when the intial ransom notes came in with proof of life. But SHIELD doesn't negotiate, so as each day passed hope that Barton would be able to escape lessoned. Phil had been instructed to send another agent in Barton's place, if possible the agent would be allowed to help Barton but that wasn't the point of the mission. Phil had mostly ignored the order, instead putting together a payback team as Natasha and Kate had dubbed it. The team consisted of Maria Hill, Kate Bishop, Natasha Romanoff, Maylinda May and himself. Their goal was to save Clint, or if that was no longer possible take out as many of theirs as they could and retrieve the body. Maylinda and Natasha had been the front of the attack or at least that's what Phil had planned. His original plan had been to send them in to accomplish the job assigned by Fury as well as take over the command center. Once the command center was in their control, Kate and himself were to go in and retrieve Barton. Maria Hill was to run everything back at the base. They had been halfway to Thailand when Barton's comm unit had crackled to life. The mission was originally supposed to be no communication, so normally he wouldn't have had it but as Barton's is located in his hearing aids, activating his comm was just a matter of flipping a switch on his aids.

"Agent Barton here. I'm alive, I think. Mission complete, sort of. Have to retrieve what they took back. Shouldn't be too hard. Not much time before they notice I'm gone, so can't talk long. Just wanted someone to know I'm still alive. Hope someone hears this. Should be broadcasted to everyone if this worked. Tell Phil not to worry yet, or do something crazy like come after me. If I'm not at a SHIELD base within twenty four hours, I'm dead and a lost cause." The unit had went dead before anyone could establish a connection to communicate back. They'd allowed Barton twelve of his twenty four hours before they went ahead with a new plan of finding him. His personal Quinjet had yet to leave the ground, so they had mounted their search. It had been a miracle, Phil had been able to find Clint at all. He'd followed a hunch and that was it. That hunch had let him find Barton before the people hunting him did. His hunch also allowed Natasha, May and Kate to get into position to annihilate the threat without being detected. Now all they had to do was make sure Barton didn't die on them, a feat that was proving to be more and more by the minute.

Hours later, Phil is still watching over Barton. They hadn't the time to get to an official SHIELD hospital, Barton's condition had gone too rapidly down hill. As a result they were in a nice, but not as nice a SHIELD hospital just outside of Grenwich England. Maria had had SHIELD doctors meet them there, the result had been an almost complete shut down on the hospital. SHIELD agents crawl every single hallway looking for potential threats. Every guest is secretly scanned, any that come back with unsatisfactory track records are tailed. Maria Hill had dotted all her I's and crossed all her t's to make sure that Barton is completely safe during his stay at the hospital. Barton's door has four Level 7 agents posted outside it at all times. No one can enter without a security card of SHIELD, any hospital staff that need access to his room have been temporarily recruited. Should someone unauthorized somehow manage to get inside Barton's room, they wouldn't fare very well much longer. As both Kate and Natasha are currently watching over Barton along with Phil. They wait for him to wake up in silence.

Phil sits beside the door, the furthest away from Barton while the girls sit on either side of him.


	26. Chapter 25

Clint hurriedly opens the hospital window. He knows he doesn't have much time before Natasha exits the shower, or before Phil and Kate come back with breakfast. He also knows he needs to have at least a six block clearance by the time they know he's gone. Hobbling on his still broken ankle, he straddles the sill. All he has to take with him is the small backpack he had initially when he left for his mission almost five weeks prior. It contents are mostly useless, with the exception of his passport and other identification. He'd ditch the bag but it will look odd if he's traveling with no luggage of any kind and the last thing he needs is to be held up at the airport. He glances down the five story fall, he's fallen much further, but that doesn't mean this still won't hurt. Still he takes note that a few stories down there is a balcony that can break at least part of his fall. With a gulp and a silent prayer, he pushes himself away from the window and out into free fall. When he hits the balcony, he lands purposefully on his side, it cushions his fall slightly and allows him to roll out some of his momentum. It still hurts. He doesn't allow his brain to linger on the fact, instead he looks over the edge of the balcony, only one more story to go. This time he climbs over the railing and hangs off the lip of the balcony, much closer to the ground he's able to drop to his feet. His ankle protests slightly but he doesn't linger on the pain. Jogging as fast as he can with his injuries, Clint takes off down the street, knowing he doesn't have much time before someone comes looking for him. He finds the closest SHIELD car and climbs into it. A quick retinal scan allows him to power the engine without the key. He won't take the vehicle too far, he knows that they can track it. He'll only take it until he can find another one.

Clint drives five miles to the nearest gas station, there he finds an abandoned car with the key in the ignition. He "borrows" it, leaving a note on the SHIELD car he leaves in it's place. The car is a nicer sports car, an Audi, Clint thinks. He's never paid much attention to things as he hates to drive, but even he has to admit he sees the appeal. Slightly speeding, Clint makes good time through the sparsely populated streets. Grenwhich's citizens aren't early risers. He drives for hours until he hits the underwater bridge that connects France and England. After providing papers for a forged identity that SHIELD doesn't have on record as his, he's allowed to cross the tunnel. By now he knows SHIELD has to be looking for him, so using a baseball cap he tries to avoid all cameras.

Once at the airport, he secures his bow in his pack. The pack is made so security won't be able to pick up the weapon. Normally it would contain a more vast supply of weapons, but due to his abrupt departure he didn't have time to regain all his normal necessities such as a fire arm and knife.

Using cash he buys a plane ticket to one of the few places he knows SHIELD won't think to look for him, and won't be able to send Natasha to search for him, Russia. The earliest flight he can get out has a one hour wait, just enough time for him to pass security, but also just enough time that SHIELD may be able to figure out where he is. On high alert he monitors his surroundings. He passes through customs relatively easily despite being secretly armed.

As he boards his plane he sees men in SHIELD uniforms begin to sniff around the place. None notice him as he gets on the plane. Once inside the structure, he awaits take off dreading that SHIELD might delay the flight to check for him. Thankfully the flight takes off at it's scheduled time. As the plane begins down the runway, Clint looks out the window. In the cargo loading area are Coulson and Natasha. They were so close, yet so far.

Clint wakes up in a cold sweat and with a need to call Natasha to make sure she's alive. He's called her before, left messages on her voicemail even, but he's always made sure it was at times she'd never be able to answer the phone. Shortly after making the call, he'd vacate the area by thousands of miles to make sure SHIELD can't find him. His need to run is still greater than his need to see her, or at least it was, until tonight.

He finds the nearest connivance store they're a dime a dozen in Russia still so it's not that hard to find one. He buys a burner phone, it takes him only a minute to set it up. He knows Natasha's number by heart, so he dials. He waits for the phone to begin ringing. As it rings, his resolve in her answering wavers. He was certain she'd pick up thinking that its him but now he's not so sure. Just as he's about to end the call on the third ring, she picks up.

"Clint?" She says, knowing it has to be him. He wants to say something but doesn't know what so he stays silent. "Clint, is that you?" She asks, her voice desperate for him to speak. He knows that by now SHIELD is already tracking the call. They'll have a location on him in seconds, a team sent out in minutes, unless he hangs up now. Still not knowing what to say, but being comforted by knowing she's alright, he hangs up the phone. He knows on the other end Natasha is cussing his name, and he wishes like hell he could hear her. Instead he puts his gloves back on and adjusts his coat. Russia is too cold for his liking. Maybe he'll migrate south soon, anything has got to be better than the constant cold that has set into his very veins. They have better doctors in the south too, and god knows he needs a doctor. He pulls the collar of his jacket up to shield his neck from the wind that blows through the alley his apartment is off of. Yup, he's definitely going to move.

Two days later, he's in China. He's always liked Hong Kong, he doesn't have plans to stay long but while he's there he has the hospital do some tests. He's been feeling really bad for the last few months, and he wants to know why. The only flaw in his plan is that he has no place to send the results. After a moment of puzzling, he rights down his farm's address. He's not sure how he'll retrieve them from the building yet but he decides that'll be a problem for later.

After Hong Kong, he migrates for awhile. He calls Natasha twice more, leaving a voice message both times. Afterwards he ditches the phones in rubbish bins, then moves on. Three weeks after Hong Kong he finds himself in Athens. Kate always loved Greece, unlike him she actually had an education. Her degree was oddly in greek studies, it made her useful around the agency if something greek showed up he'd always wondered why she'd chosen to use her degree with SHIELD. While in a small cafe, he pays to use the internet. He logs onto his email that is separate from SHIELD. While digging through the junk mail, he finds an e-vite for one of his aliases to a party that happens to be in Athens. Under further inspection he finds it to be for Joseph Adler. After much internal debate he decides to go, he decides the likely hood of SHIELD being at the party, one of Stark's many charities to be highly low. If anything Kate may make an appearance, but it's not Kate he's running from.

Clint manages to buy a tux from a small wedding shop. Remarkably he doesn't even need to have it tailored, it fits him perfectly. He then kills time. It won't seem odd for him to come in with a less then grand entrance, at least not when the event is in Athens. Many of the elite, are more laid back when in the tropics. No need for fancy limos or other cars when it's just as nice to walk. While walking around, he manages to convince two rather burly broke college kids to play the part of "body guard" tonight. He assures them they need no skills, then pays them four hundred dollars each for the night. He also buys them nicer looking clothes. While out, he thinks about how to explain away the absence of his wife. His cover of Joseph has been relatively unactive lately, he's still made stock trades under the name, actually gaining his own wealth and not SHIELD's in his bank accounts, but as for public appearance the Adlers have been more of home bodies lately. He thinks back through the last few times he's used the cover and quickly realizes he hasn't been out with Kate for almost three years. In fact, he's escorted Natasha, as a friend of his wife, more and more. It wouldn't be hard to explain Kate's absence as martial problems. He decides to use that as the excuse.

Around eight o'clock, he and his "bodyguards" arrive at the event center. In an old fashioned greek style, the event center looks more like a pavilion, the walls are open allowing the warm summer air to be a continued comfort at this late hour of the day. Clint gives his name at the door, while surprised that he's actually in attendance, the bouncer lets him into the VIP area of the event. Clint takes comfort in talking to old acquaintances. He's been mostly on his own for the past four months and it's nice to have familiar human contact.

Around nine, he spots Kate. She's only just arriving, with Natasha and Coulson as her escorts. He watches as the bouncer mentions his name, and he sees the three agents immediately begin to search the area for him. Ducking behind a waiter, he begins to plan his escape, but before he can, Tony Stark grabs his arm.

"Joseph." The man says, his breath reeking of scotch. Clint has half the mind to punch him, and probably would if it wouldn't draw any attention. "Nice to see you. You don't get out much anymore."

"I've focused on my work." He says, trying to hurry up Tony's small chat. He's honestly surprised the Tony knew who he was at all, and it's only when he sees his assistant a few steps away that he realized he didn't. Pepper must be making him be friendly.

"You're wife and you used to be so cute together. Where is she tonight?" Clint shoots Pepper a look, begging her to come and collect her boss. Either she doesn't see it or she ignores him grateful to be Tony free for a moment.

"I'm actually not all that sure." He says, still trying to escape Tony's iron grasp. "We've actually been growing apart."

"I'm sorry, mate. Didn't mean to bring up a sore subject, here let me buy you a drink." Tony motions to Pepper. He then instructs her to get both him and Clint drinks. Clint tries to insist that he doesn't need one but Tony will hear none of it. "Now listen." Tony says once Clint has taken the tiniest of sips off of his scotch. "Pepper has been trying to get ahold of you for months. You're not very responsive." He throws an arm over Clint's shoulders. "Anyways, I was hoping you'd show up tonight. Seemed like your kind of thing, that's why I came. You see I have a business proposition for you." While building Joseph's fortune, Clint had actually founded a well off business. His start up/ funding company is set to make billions this fiscal year. While the company makes large profits, Clint puts most back into the company or into charity funds only keeping a small portion for himself. "Stark Industries is set to launch a new energy development, it's more for show than anything else at this point… but that's business talk. I'll leave that kind of thing to Obie. Anyways, what I want to know is if you'd like to put your hand into the pot so to speak. The turn around for the investment won't be huge, and could honestly take years, but it will make your company look good. We'll do it with or without you, Obie just thought it would look good if this was a group effort, you know. Corporate America, saving the world, yadadada. So, you interested." While Tony's been forcing his presence onto himself, Coulson and team have been closing in. Now the only thing from keeping them from pouncing on top of him is Stark. Clint thinks fast, seeing a way out of the mess he's gotten himself into.

"I'd love to invest. In fact, why don't we put ink to paper in the morning. I'm kind of tired of this place, why don't you and I fly back to New York tonight. That way everything can be finalized as soon as possible."

"Excellent idea." Tony says, calling over his bodyguard he instructs him to both find Pepper and have the car pulled around. "Aster, isn't that your lovely wife standing over there?" Tony asks, unfortunately his eyes landing on Kate. Despite Clint kicking his shin, he waves the group over to them. Kate always one to fall into a roll, kisses Tony on both cheeks in greeting before moving to snake her arm around Clint's waist. Clint makes point of stepping out of the embrace closer, moving closer to Tony.

"Mrs. Aster, may I ask who your companions are?" Tony asks motioning to Natasha and Phil.

"My business associate Paul, and my personal friend Natalia." Kate doesn't miss a single beat.

"Your husband I were just talking business, he's a very hard man to get ahold of. I've been trying for months. Now that we've finally made contact, I have to beg you to allow me to steal him away to New York tonight." Kate sends a side glance to Phil who answers the question in her eyes silently before answering Stark.

"That's perfectly alright with me, Mr. Stark. Just keep track of him for me, alright. Like you said, my husband can be a terribly hard man to find."

As they walk toward the door, Coulson bumps against Clint, holding him up from Stark. The older man leans in to whisper into Clint's ear.

"We're not the bad guys, Clint."

"That's what you think." He breaths back, pushing past his superior to follow Stark out the door. He knows that by now Coulson has a tail on him, that he'll have one until they reach New York. Not that that concerns him, unless the tail is Natasha, he'll be able to slip them as soon as he leaves Stark's facilities. And if the tail is Natasha, he's been missing having a challenge in his life.


	27. Chapter 26

Twelve months after his escape from the hospital, six months after SHIELD last saw him, Clint walks through Coulson's office door only to find that it no longer belongs to Coulson.

"You know, you're almost a bigger pain in my ass than your worth, Agent Barton."

"I'm looking for Coulson, Sir." Clint says not meeting the Director's eyes. As Fury looks over the boy with his one good eye, he notices that he's pretty beat up.

"May I ask why?" Clint stays silent, looking at his feet like they're the most interesting object in the world.

"Mm-kay." Fury says, crossing the room, he lifts up Barton's chin. He notices that the touch brings the kid pain. "Most operatives would never get away with not answer a direct question from the head of this organization, Agent Barton."

"I'm not most operatives." Barton mumbles, ducking his chin out of Fury's hold. He at least looks at the man. The extent of his injuries finally clear to Fury, the man almost wishes the boy hadn't.

"The fact that you know that, is highly irritating. Did Phil clue you in?"

"Perhaps it was the fact that you recruited me for field work when I was twelve, Sir."

"I knew that sarcasm was somewhere. Report to medical, get yourself looked at. Then you're going to tell me personally exactly where it is you've been this past year. And you better have a damn good explanation, unless you'd like to spend some time in the Fridge. I should send you there, regardless with all the time you've wasted having us search for you."

"I wished you hadn't, spent all that time, I mean..."

Fury cuts him off. "Not another damn word, Barton, you'll have plenty of time to talk after medical looks you over. Until then, you don't speak."

"U..."

"What did I say."

Barton nods, sealing his lips. He dutifully marches toward the medical wing of the Triskellion building. As he walks, he notes that at least four armed agents follow him. Fury's not taking any chances on if he decides he wants to leave or not. Clint doesn't blame him, because he's still not all that sure he wants to stay.

When Clint checks out of medical a day later, Fury is waiting for him by the door. Hill, his always present shadow, stands off to the side not saying a word. She has a pen in her hand and a clipboard. Clint assumes that the paper she's scribbling furious notes onto must be his medical workup. He falls into step behind Fury as the man takes off for the elevator. As ordered to yesterday, he hasn't spoken a word since their last encounter and he intends to continue not to speak until Fury instructs him to do so. For the first time ever, as they enter the elevator, he doesn't make a snide comment on how they're death traps. He wants to, but he doesn't.

When the elevator doors open, they admit everyone into Fury's office. Maria immediately takes up residence on the leather couch in the corner of the room. She continues to scribble on the clipboard. Clint notes that she's not the couch's only occupant, Natasha also a shadow watches him, her eyes never leaving his figure. Clint finds that Coulson's continued absence to be very out of character.

"Why'd you run son?" While Clint had been staring at Natasha, Fury had moved to his desk on the opposite side of the room. He motions for Clint to take the seat opposite him, but Clint shakes his head, instead moving to look out the large picture windows overlooking DC.

"Lovely view, you have here, Director." He says, his eyes searching the streets for any potential threats.

"Stay on topic, Agent Barton. I can and will reassign you to the Sandbox, or worse, if I don't like how this conversation goes. You've been coddled too long. You've gotten too comfortable, put on too many airs. I realize that now, and I intend to fix the problem before it can spread to any other agents."

"I was completely on topic, had you let me finish. This view, it reminds me of a very different view I was shown about a year ago. Imagine this, Paris, you're in a rather large office building overlooking the Eiffel Tower. Such an office doesn't come cheap, that much is obvious, but it's not yours. It belongs to a very powerful, very corrupt man. He works for an organization you've been tasked with single handedly bringing down. You've been told, they'll be no reinforcements if you fail, no back up of any kind, no superior officers to report back too, not even an extraction plan to get you out. You're completely solo, as if you never worked for your organization at all. So, you stand in this office, looking at the pretty view you know was supposed to impress you, to dazzle you. And it does, but not on the scale they were intending. The boss offers you a drink, you take it to be polite. When he's not looking you slowly poor it into a plant, just in case he tried to poison you. He begins talking, you listen. You hate every damn word he says, but you can't show that. You have to hide that, have to force a smile on your face, you need him to like you. You need him to want you as his right hand, still every damn word out of his mouth makes you want to shoot him. The only thing that stops you, is knowing that you'll get your chance later."

Clint turns away from the window to look at Fury, he slowly crosses the room toward the director, who looks mildly interested in what he's saying.

"You manage not to blow that first meeting, somehow you even manage to gain his trust. You start being the very thing you hate, the thing you despise more, you try to tell yourself it's all an act, but then why does it come so easy? You hide the fears, gather intelligence, play the part so perfectly it stops being an act. You loose yourself to the organization, or at least it seems that way. "What happened to Clint Barton?" It's as if he never existed. But he's still there, in the back of your mind, biding his time, waiting for his window to send the whole damn thing up in flames."

Clint takes a seat across from the Director. He stares Fury down. "Flash forward three months, it's time to light the flame, the whole thing is covered in gasoline, it should go up easy. That's when you find an unaccounted for variable, someone has found you out. They brought a fire extinguisher to the party. Suddenly you're chained to wall, taking hit after hit, spitting blood every few minutes. Dying for a glass of water but knowing better than to give them the satisfaction of knowing your uncomfortable. Two months go by, you watch them tick away on the clock. By now, you know all your friends think you're dead. You've missed the extraction period by weeks, soon the Director will send another man to finish the job. It'll be easier for that man, you've laid all the ground work. You take slight satisfaction in that."

"Two more days go by, they haven't given you a thing to drink in several days. You're dying for something, you're just about ready to give into the thirst when the door opens a crack. The Director, not the one you're actually affiliated with, but the one you were pretending for, the man you failed to take down, walk in. He gives you a drink of water, which you can't help but gulp down. He thinks you're a dead man. He makes jokes, and assurances that soon you will be. Seeing him, it gives you life again. He's nearby, maybe everything isn't completely gone to shit. You summon some inner strength, snap your wrist and bite through the bindings the hold you to the wall. A minutes later a guard comes in with food. Despite being half-dead you dispatch of him quickly, after all that's what you were trained to do. You pause only long enough to eat the food he brought, then you escape. Ten guards, quickly just lumps on the floor. You take to the vents to avoid detection, not many people can fit in them, so not many people think to check them. You move with a stealth that only years of practice can bring. Once in the central system where no one can hear you, you activate your emergency comms. Your not positive the connection will even work, but your desperate to get the message out that your alive. Ten minutes later, your mission is complete and your fleeing. It's harder now, you've taken a ton of hits. Your body is more broken then okay, but you fight on. You only have a little farther to go. The next thing you know you're safe… until you realize you're not. A man in the hospital is one of the same from the organization you thought you just destroyed. You panic, despite being around friends and help, you run. You don't want the man to hurt them, and you know he will only if your around. They follow you for months, you can't stay anywhere long. Not only because of them but also because your friends are hunting you. Months turn into almost a year. While in a shit hole of a motel, you realize you're tired of running. So you stay, even though you know they're closing in, you stay. When they arrive, you're waiting and pissed off. They don't stand a chance. They send more after you, and after what you did to their coworkers you don't blame them, but you do the same to them as well. Then one day, they stop coming. You're finally safe from outside threats, the only monsters coming after you are internal now. So you decide to go home. Your friends deserve to stop looking, only you don't know if they'll like what you've become."

Clint shrinks back from Fury now that his story is over, retreating into himself, he looks very much the twelve year old boy he was when Nick Fury first met him.

"You always did have a way with words." Phil Coulson, who had been in back corner the entire time, comes out of the shadows. "And I told Fury not to send you on that damn mission."

"He was the only man for the job." Nick stares down Phil. "He's my agent Phil, not yours. At least not in the grand scheme of things, you'd do well to remember that. And like I told you when I assigned him the job, I knew he'd get results. And he did, right, Clint."

"In the long run, yes."

"Good. Took a lot longer than it should have, but if it took one of my best agents that long, it would have taken the man Phil suggested for the job eons. Now, Agent Barton, you'll report for assignment in the morning."

"Nick." Maria speaks for the first time, drawing everyone's attention. "Agent Barton isn't medically cleared for field work."

"Oh, trust me, Agent Hill. I know. This assignment has nothing to do with the field, I have a feeling that Agent Barton has had enough of that for now. Now everyone get out of my office."


End file.
